Out of 182 applications submitted for the focus areas of the John von Neumann Programme, 89 projects won support worth HUF 50 billion in total, the Minister of Culture and Innovation announced to the press in Budapest on Thursday.

Balázs Hankó pointed out that 84 percent of the supported projects would be implemented in cooperation with universities and research institutes.

In the framework of the supported projects, innovative solutions will be realized, such as a technology that combines robotic surgery with laser surgery solutions, a food industry technology that ensures 100 percent of the allergens to be filtered, or a waste water disposal technology for battery industry that enables the extraction and recycling of important raw materials, the Minister highlighted.

Balázs Hankó said that the supported projects give a good example of the strategic objectives set out in the John von Neumann Programme, that innovation investments should simultaneously generate economic impact, i.e. revenues, and should also help solve challenges of importance for the Hungarian people and contribute to easing the everyday life of the Hungarian people. Almost half of the supported projects will provide innovative solutions in the field of digital transition, nearly a third in the field of green transition, and almost 15 percent in the field of healthy living. The Minister emphasized that, according to reviewers, the quality of the project proposals has increased significantly compared to last year. The project implementation period is 2 to 3 years, funding varies from HUF 300 million to 800 million, the Minister added.

Balázs Hankó also told about the need for a new economic policy due to the changes in the global economic environment in recent years, that is why the government announced a new economic policy action plan, and also launched a national consultation to seek the opinion of Hungarians on 11 questions until December 20, about reinforcing family benefits, supporting the young and protecting pensions. Among other things, the new economic policy action plan set out goals such as to strengthen the Hungarian micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, to double the number oto have every second Hungarian SME "innovating" as opposed to the current situation i.e. one out of three. This will help us to make Hungary one of the Top 10 innovators in Europe by the end of the decade, pointed out the Minister.

Balázs Hankó thinks it is worth to be innovative in Hungary: innovative businesses pay 31 percent higher salaries for workforce, operate 58 percent more efficiently and employ 2.5 times more employees as compared to non-innovative businesses.

The Minister of Culture and Innovation said that no less than HUF 312 billion in calls for proposals is available to the Hungarian business sector this year. Of this, calls with budget HUF 292 billion in total have already been announced, and with the current scheme, HUF 50 billion of funding has already reached its goal. More patents, more innovators and more cooperations with universities are needed in order to improve Hungary's innovation performance, emphasized the Minister.

Source: MTI