Medicinal Molecular Biology is a relatively new discipline which focuses on the diagnosis and study of diseases through the analysis of biomolecules, mainly nucleic acids and proteins. In well developed regions of the EU, Molecular Diagnostic services are typically provided. However, molecular diagnostics are still in their infancy in Southern Bulgaria. In Thrace the scientific know-how is available but, in order to become as broadly as possible accessible to the public, it has to be disseminated outside the academic community, to local health professionals. The present proposal addresses three major problems: a) the limited access of citizens living in the cross-border area to molecular diagnostic services. b) the limited awareness of the public regarding the efficacy of Molecular Diagnostics for the diagnosis and prevention of various severe diseases. c) the almost complete isolation between the scientific communities of health professionals from both countries. The main objectives of BIOMED-CBC are:- To drastically improve the access of citizens living in the intervention area to molecular diagnostics.,- To increase public awareness on the efficacy of Molecular Diagnostics for the diagnosis and prevention of various severe disorders., - To bring together for several days and to train, Greek and Bulgarian health professionals interested in expanding their scientific qualifications by getting training Expected Results: The major expected direct and immediate effects resulting from the project are the following:- We expect to drastically improve the access of citizens living in the intervention area, to Molecular Diagnostics. This will be achieved through (a) The development of the Biomedical Training Centre (BTC) in Greece. BTC will organise hands-on workshops to disseminate the concepts and the techniques of Molecular Diagnostics to local health professionals of the public and private sector, from both countries. (b) The Molecular Diagnostics Unit (MDU) in Bulgaria. MDU will operate as a core health facility providing molecular diagnostics services in the intervention area. We expect that two working positions, one part time in Greece and one fulltime in Bulgaria will be generated. Hence, for the better presentation of the results of this project, the No of part time and fulltime positions generated by the project, could be used as additional indicators. In both cases the target value is 1. We expect to increase public awareness in the intervention area on the efficacy of Molecular Diagnostics for the diagnosis and prevention of various severe disorders. This will be initially achieved through the organization of the kick-off meeting and the conference, by the development of the website, the publication of several press advertisements and the circulation of promotional leaflets. To sustain this achievement we are planning to regularly organize workshops for students/teachers from the intervention area (please see B6). - We expect to overcome the obstacles in information flow within the intervention area by bringing together through workshops, Greek and Bulgarian health professionals that share complementary and/or synergistic expertise and are potential collaborators in future health related projects. This will propagate in the future the number of joint partnerships/networks developed in the framework of the priority axis.