The visiting delegation included Prof. Philippe Chassaigne, chief expert of humanities and social sciences of the Ministry of Higher Education and Research (MESR), Elisabeth Legrand, programme officer for Northern and Eastern Europe of the MESR, and Didier Haguenauer, cooperation attaché in S&T and university affairs at the Embassy of the Republic of France in Budapest.

Upon the initiation of the French side, the first items on the agenda were presentations of the institutional systems and decision-making mechanisms in Hungary and France, respectively, entering into details of the recent systemic reshuffle and the selection process of project proposals in Hungary.

Following the presentations, the Parties scrutinised Hungarian and French project proposals submitted in the latest (2012) call for proposals, published in the framework of the bilaterally-coordinated Balaton Integrated Action Programme. They jointly identified project proposals that have the best outlooks in terms of feasibility and thus were designated for potential financial support.

Out of the 28 valid project proposals, separately ranked by Hungarian and French authorities, 17 gained consensual support from the two sides. The Parties agreed that young researchers participating in the winning projects may receive additional financial support. Their list is due to be finalised in the coming days.

The French side with satisfaction that projects submitted in the next round of call may be allocated increased funding that takes into consideration the rate of inflation on the Hungarian side.

The participants mutually delineated the work plan for 2012-13. They mutually specified and accepted the deadlines for 2012, and included them in the protocol of the meeting. These deadlines lay down that winners will be notified until the end of June, and so the next round of call may be announced in Hungary as well as in France in the summer, almost simultaneously. Hence the deadline for submission is expected to be set for the autumn of this year. (The Parties will shortly harmonise the dates after consulting with the relevant decision-making authorities, complemented with the sums that may be granted as financial support under different legal titles.) The next session of the joint committee is planned to convene in Paris in December.

The French partners informed that the vast majority (20) of French project owners expressed their interests in the continuation of joint projects that had been launched before the governmental moratorium came into effect on the Hungarian side in mid-2010. The representatives of the MESR, however, called the attention that in case the execution of a project floundered, the French financing authority wound withdraw the remaining sum awarded for the second year.

Mrs. Elisabeth Legrand, Prof. Philippe Chassaigne, Mr. Didier Haguenauer, Ms. Mahault Piéchaud	István Mányi, Ildikó Kovács Dr., Miklós Győr Dr., Gábor Csirikusz
Mr. Didier Haguenauer, attaché for cooperation, science, technology and university affairs, Embassy of the Republic of France, Budapest	Prof. Philippe Chassaigne, Chief Expert in Humanities and Social Sciences, Ministry of Higher Education and Research, France
Mrs. Elisabeth Legrand, programme officer for Eastern and Northern Europe, Ministry of Higher Education and Research, France	Ms. Mahault Piéchaud, Assistant, Cooperation Service of the Embassy of the Republic of France, Budapest
Hungarian-French Inter-governmental Joint Committee on S&T  - June 8th, 2012.