In the previous seven-year cycle, Hungarian organisations received altogether EUR 350 million in EU funding for 1400 successful projects, which accounted for 0.6% of the total Horizon 2020 budget. The Government aims to increase Hungary’s share in awarded direct-access EU funds to 2.18% in proportion to the country’s population. This is one of the reasons behind organising large knowledge centres and national laboratories with a focus on high-priority areas around universities in Hungary, as consortia thematically aligned with the priorities of the framework programme and incorporating domestic scientific and technological excellence will have an increased chance in the competition for EU funds.
In order to improve the success rate of Hungarian project proposals, the NRDI Office launched a series of practice-oriented events, which is still running. So far, nine online presentations took place followed by consultations where participants could ask speakers to elaborate on questions that could not be explained in detail in the presentations due to lack of time. A total of 2278 people have registered for the information events.
Topics covered by the presentations include:
- Horizon Europe in a nutshell
- Green calls
- Climate, energy and mobility
- Research career development
- Research infrastructures
- Health
- From research results to business success
- Culture, creativity and inclusive society (humanities and social sciences)
- Security
- Digitisation, industrial technology and space research
- How to widen participation in the countries that joined the EU after 2004?
- How to manage proposals and funded projects in Europe Horizon?
- Missions in the Horizon Europe programme
Due to the high level of interest, 7 of the 9 events had to be broadcast in the form of YouTube live streams as well. Consultations also attracted hundreds of registered participants, and the speakers keep receiving phone calls and email inquiries for more help in their respective thematic fields.