Budapest, 1 October 2020 – The Hungarian Association for Innovation, together with the Ministry for Innovation and Technology and the Ministry of Human Capacities announced the 30th Scientific and Innovation Talent Recruitment Contest for Youth under the main sponsorship of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office. According to this year’s call, young creatives may win a prize worth HUF 5 million and podium will worth 100 extra points at the next year’s university admissions. The most efficacious coaches and secondary schools will also win substantial funding.
Project ideas can be submitted until 25 November 2020 by uploading the maximum of a two-page synopsis of a natural science problem or task to be solved. Competitors qualifying for the second round will have until 1 April 2021 to elaborate their projects in detail. Competitors might be interested to know what the evaluation panel focuses on: important factors are, among others, the originality and the scientific value of the approach to the problem, as well as the thoroughness of its elaboration, but also the quality of the individual work, the written material, and the technical work or model also count;
The participants of the opening ceremony of the 30th Scientific and Innovation Talent Recruit-ment Contest for Youth were welcomed by Dr Zoltán Birkner, the President of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office. “On the renewing Hungarian innovation scene, we have numerous ways to foster the emergence of new talents making sure that Hungary will not run out of new generations of dedicated research and development experts. Our Office has been committed for years also to support this contest inviting young people under the age of 20 to submit their own innovative projects, or the tangible results of their research.”
Three talented young contestants who were rewarded in the previous years and have achieved remarkable international success ever since were also introduced as “faces” of the contest.
- Boglárka Ecsedi won first prize at the last contest with her project involving a special learning algorithm to identify the backflows of seas and oceans causing a large number of deaths worldwide due to their unpredictability. This year she was offered an internship by the Medical University of Vienna where she was involved in the works of a research group.
- Miklós Zsigó who, having won first prize, was awarded a special prize in 2019 at the EU Contest for Young Scientists and set up a company with his teammates to promote his intelligent moth trap equipped with sensors, a camera and a microcontroller. His promising innovation was introduced with success also at the first Hungarian agricultural start-up programme, NAK TechLab, and nearly a dozen companies already purchase his product.
- Blanka Novák won a price at the 2019 ISEF, the international Olympics of scientific contests, with her bio-chemistry project. Her Drop the STEM podcast facilitating the dialogue between the various research generations and bringing together young researchers and companies intending to innovate was also on the Hungarian Shark Tank (Cápák között), an entrepreneurial-themed TV show, where she won a special prize.
„As in previous years, we invite secondary school students to submit their projects offering an innovative solution to a problem in the fields of technology, natural sciences, environment protection, information technology or mathematics”, highlighted Dr János Pakucs, chairman of the organising committee, Honorary President of the Hungarian Association for Innovation. Presenting the new elements in this year’s call, he noted that in addition to cash prizes, the extra points to be added for university admissions were also significantly increased. Success at the contest will worth an extra 100 points for university admissions as opposed to 30 extra points in the previous years. Secondary school teachers supervising the work of the best students will be given a differentiated reward of HUF 600 to 800 thousand, and the most successful schools will get a HUF 1 million grant with the primary objective of supporting the work of study groups.
Continuing the traditions of the contest, the evaluation panel will grant a one-year scholarship to three students winning first, three students winning second and four students winning third place, respectively and, along with them, special prizes will be awarded to the youngest student and the most successful Hungarian student living abroad. The best contestants may get to prestigious international contests, such as the EU Contest for Young Scientists and the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), and may also participate in professional visits or even attend the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony. Startup Campus will provide the eligible contestants with a free business and fund-raising training.
For the detailed call for the contest please visit www.innovacio.hu.
