Purpose of the call

• Establish the research infrastructure for industrial development projects based on actual market needs, in cooperation with excellent research institutions in the specific field;
  
• Develop domestic research infrastructure in the form of cooperation between the industrial and higher education sectors, where the created RDI capacity generates new competitive products and service.
  

Who can apply

Only applicants which are consortia shall be eligible to submit applications. The consortium leader shall only be higher education institution. Consortium members shall have their registered seat, business premises or branch office in the Central Hungary region. The number of the members of the consortium shall not exceed five persons, including the consortium leader. Applicants may be:

• publically accredited, religious and private higher education institutions;
  
• business companies with registered seat in the Central Hungary region or the Central Hungarian branch offices of business companies with registered seat in the European Economic Area, provided that they have at least two completed business years, maintain double-entry accounting and are not subject to the simplified entrepreneurial tax (EVA);
  
• budgetary organs or their institutions with legal personality, provided that they qualify as research centres under the law.
  

Eligible project objectives

The following activities are eligible for funding under the programme:

• Activities eligible for funding independently
  Under support for research-development projects: 
    I.       Basic research
    II.      Applied (industrial) research
    III.     Experimental development
  
• Activities not eligible for funding independently
  Within the framework of de minimis funding:
    IV.    Activities relating to publicity
    V.     Project coordination activities
    VI.    Market entry:
            market presence (participation in fairs, expositions, professional conferences),
            preparation and procurement of marketing tools,
            industrial design,
            employment of marketing or business development manager.
    VII. Participation in conferences
    In the form of investment aid for research infrastructure related projects:
    VIII. Procurement of assets
    IX.   Construction, expansion, rearrangement, modernisation, renovation of buildings strictly necessary for the research infrastructure, and the necessary developments of basic infrastructure
    X.    Procurement of immaterial assets
  

For a detailed description and definition of eligible activities please refer to the Call for Applications and the Application Guidelines.

Main eligibility criteria:

• Consortium members shall undertake to increase the number of R&D personnel on the basis of specific indicators, to prepare a business plan based on the project results, and to complete three further commitments of the options detailed in the Call for Applications in the following fields: increase of the number of publications, registration application filed with the industrial property office, creation of a tested prototype and establishment of an independent spin-off company for the utilisation thereof, and in the field of research involving PhD students.
  
• Projects shall be implemented in a maximum of 48 months from the project launch and the applicant shall maintain the project results for five years. Projects started before applying to the call are considered ineligible.
  
• The higher education institution leading the consortium shall create the Centre for Higher Education and Industrial Cooperation (FIEK) as an institutional centre controlled by the rector.
  

Available funds:

The “Research Infrastructure Development of Higher Education and Industry Cooperation Centres” (FIEK_16) call is scheduled to have a total budget of HUF 8 billion (approx.  EUR 25.5 million), financed from the NRDI Fund. Two to four projects are expected to be awarded in this call, with minimum HUF 2 billion (EUR 6,4 million), maximum amount of funds awarded per project is HUF 4 billion (EUR 12.7 million). The number of potentially awarded projects is for indicative purposes only and may be subject to change depending on the funds requested and won by the applicants.

Deadline for submission:

The deadline for submission of applications is 15 September 2016. Projects submitted by this deadline will be assessed collectively.