The principle city of eastern Slovakia is also – with a population of 235.000 - the second largest city in Slovakia, located near Hungarian, Ukrainian and Polish borders. Hence the economic and cultural centre of eastern Slovakia, Košice hosted for the second time The International Scientific Conference on Probiotics and Prebiotics (IPC2010), held from 15th to 17th of June in the downtown Hotel Doubletree by Hilton organized for the 4th time by The Faculty of Medicine at Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice.

The BIOMIN Research and Innovation Network (B.R.A.I.N.) is a program created to support young and highly skilled scientists. Its aim: To fund interesting research projects in the area of animal nutrition, animal health, natural growth promotion, feed-microbiology and biotechnology, mycotoxins, feed hygiene and preservation as well as undesirable substances.

This special BIOMIN program is divided into two parts: B.R.A.I.N. I and B.R.A.I.N. II.

In the first part a jury continuously evaluates the submitted project proposals of students and research teams and decides upon funding for the most promising ones. Consideration will be given to research projects, scientific studies, diploma- or PhD-thesis on a topic related to one of BIOMIN’s suggested research fields.

The second part of B.R.A.I.N. is devoted to awarding excellent scientific work from all over the world. Abstracts for papers referring to one of BIOMIN’s research fields will be reviewed by an interdisciplinary jury. Annually the authors of the top five may publish their full scientific paper in the proceedings of the following World Nutrition Forum and get an award of 300 EUR.The author may present their paper orally at the World Nutrition Forum. All related costs will be covered by BIOMIN.