The EU program Interreg-AT-CZ is about cross-border cooperation between Austria and the Czech Republic. The project theme of our project is the scientific and cultural heritage of Gregor Mendel, the "father of genetics", whose 200th birthday will take place in 2022. As part of this, the greenhouse in the Augustinian Monastery in Brno, where Mendel conducted his famous pea experiments, will be reconstructed. At the same time, there will be a scientific and popular science program in the Czech Republic and Austria - after all, Mendel studied at the University of Vienna.

The Faculty of Life Sciences is one of the project partners, with the lead partner being the Augustinian Monastery in Brno. In Austria, in addition to the University of Vienna, the BOKU is also involved as a project partner, and in the Czech Republic the Masaryk University and the Mendel Museum are further project partners. Other strategic partners in Austria are the Natural History Museum Vienna and the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolutionary and Cognitive Research in Klosterneuburg, as well as some other institutions in the Czech Republic.

As part of the project, the team from the University of Vienna is organizing a scientific and history of science symposium entitled "Mendel's legacy for science and society," which will take place on October 13 and 14 at the Konrad Lorenz Institute in Klosterneuburg. Together with the science communication team at the Natural History Museum, a science show "Meet a Scientist - Gregor Mendel" and a school workshop are also being developed. The content will focus on Mendel's findings and their significance for biological research. These activities can be visited by school classes on deck 50 of the Natural History Museum from June 2022.

The GJM200 project team at the University of Vienna consists of Dr. Barbara Fischer, Dr. Lynn Chiu, Prof. Philipp Mitteroecker and Severin Bachmayer, all at the Department of Evolutionary Biology.