In his welcome speech Robert-Jan Smits, Director General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission, pointed out that the funded projects were indeed the most excellent ones with the potential to bring about structural changes in the scientific and innovation system of their respective home countries and regions, with an impact at European level. He emphasized that the Teaming projects will foster a real partnership between the participating research organisations, national funding agencies and the European Commission, and will contribute to structures that can be maintained in the long run.

As reported by the NRDI Office in November 2016, Hungary was the most successful country in the “Teaming” research excellence programme, the most prestigious call of the Horizon 2020 programme. The two winning consortia coordinated by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office, consisting of excellent Hungarian and international partners have been awarded altogether EUR 26 million (around HUF 8 billion).

Together with the supplemented domestic funds and the contributions of participating institutions, over HUF 22 billion (EUR 72.1 million) will be provided to the two cutting-edge projects to be implemented in the fields of production informatics and control and medical research.

In line with the concept of the “Teaming” actions, which form part of the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme promoting research, development and innovation, the main role of the NRDI Office was to ensure the Government’s professional and financial commitment to the project proposals and the compliance of the project proposals with the domestic RDI strategies, and to stimulate partnership between participating domestic institutions.