Budapest, 24 March 2025 – The 2025 call of the HU-rizon Programme with a budget of HUF 8 billion will benefit Hungarian researchers and the Hungarian economy, Minister of Culture and Innovation Balázs Hankó said in Budapest on Monday.
At a press conference organised by the Ministry of Culture and Innovation and the National Innovation Agency in Budapest on Monday, Balázs Hankó pointed out that the decision to launch the HU-rizon Programme again this year, with a new budget of HUF 8 billion, was made following the success of last year. The winning projects may receive between HUF 100 and 400 million in non-refundable grants, the Minister added. If a large number of good projects are submitted, the amount of the budget announced could be increased, he continued.
Balázs Hankó set the goal of having a Hungarian higher education institution among the top 100 universities in the world and Hungarian universities in addition to being among the top 100 universities in Europe by 2030. The Minister said that in the HU-rizon Programme, the universities of Stanford, Cambridge and Singapore are cooperating with such Hungarian universities as Semmelweis University, the Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the University of Debrecen, the University of Szeged and Óbuda University.
He explained that last year, the programme funded 30 projects in which Hungarian higher education institutions are conducting excellent research with top universities in North America, Europe and Asia in areas such as health, robotics, information technology and environmental sustainability.
The Minister described as a novelty of this year’s HU-rizon call that two Hungarian higher education institutions from abroad, Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania and Ferenc Rákóczi II Transcarpathian Hungarian College of Higher Education, are also eligible to apply for funding. “We would like Sapientia University to be among the top ten higher education institutions among Romanian universities in Transylvania, and the Ferenc Rákóczi II Transcarpathian Hungarian College of Higher Education, in Berehove – which will become a university in the coming years – to be among the top five private universities in Ukraine in the coming years”, Balázs Hankó underlined. He also pointed out that Hungary has also achieved a competitive turnaround in the field of academic research and innovation. “It’s time the European Union also recognised this”, he noted. According to the Minister, instead of increasing competitiveness, Brussels is “pondering” over how to discriminate against Hungarian students and researchers by excluding them from international cooperation. “Brussels seeks to make love of country a conflict of interest for Hungarian universities and Hungarian researchers”, the Minister said adding that “we must not let this happen for we are committed to the success of Hungarian researchers and Hungarian students”.
László Lengyel, Vice President for Science and International Affairs of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office explained that under the second call of the HU-rizon Programme, Hungarian universities will again be the consortium leaders with 3 to 4 foreign universities participating in the implementation of their programmes. László Lengyel highlighted the importance of projects in the fields of green and circular economy, healthcare and digitalisation, among others, to address Hungarian social and economic challenges and to involve as many young researchers as possible in the projects. As he pointed out, the evaluation of projects will change this year. Last year, a large number of applications were received, so a “pre-selection” process will be applied and some of the applications will be sent for a detailed external evaluation, added the Vice-President noting that the final decision will be taken by the Ministry of Culture and Innovation.
More about programme: HU-RIZON international research excellence cooperation programme (2025-1.2.1-HU-RIZONT)
Source: MTI