At the award ceremony of the Innovation Grand Prize in the Parliament on 28 March, József Pálinkás, President of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office and Chairman of the jury underlined that individual and institutional competitiveness was the key to a nation’s success, therefore he advocated transparent and fair competition in the innovation system. Only those whose achievements are recognised and appreciated outside Hungary as well may make an impact on the world in the global competition of nations, regions and alliances, he added. The president of the NRDI Office also said: “research and innovation require not only stable functioning and funding, but a world view and future vision in which all these become meaningful. They shape cultures and serve as the foundation of decisions to be made. We must take responsibility for providing this future vision and its sustainability.” According to József Pálinkás, the key to the success of businesses is their renewal ability, whereas the efficiency of the innovation system is conditional upon the network of interconnected institutions. At the award ceremony the President of the NRDI Office urged the budget of the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund to be doubled until 2020. 

Erik Bogsch, President of Richter Gedeon Nyrt. said at the award ceremony: as a company based in Hungary they are most proud of their ability to keep talented Hungarian professionals in the country. János Latorcai, Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly called the results of Richter as the most outstanding innovation achievement of recent years, which was born in a most fierce global competition, as he put it. 

Péter Závodszky, Chairman of the Hungarian Innovation Foundation called research and development an overarching national issue, and added that over the past few years the conditions of a competitiveness boom had emerged. Powerful players of the global economy will not give away activities that produce a high added value, therefore Hungary needs to establish them by itself with knowledge-based economy and an innovative attitude by ensuring financial and legal conditions, he added.
The Innovation Grand Prize was established by the Hungarian Association for Innovation in 1992 to acknowledge outstanding innovation achievements of technical and economic nature. Besides the originality of projects, profitability and social benefits resulting from the given innovation are also taken into account by the jury invited by the Board of Trustees of the Hungarian Innovation Foundation, when considering nominations.  

Further awarded innovations: 

• Industry Innovation Award went to Mol Nyrt. for the development of the reduced emission fuel of heavy duty vehicles.

  
• Kite Zrt. won the Agriculture Innovation Award for its weather-neutral fertilisation technique.

  
• The winner of the Environment Innovation Award is Gremon Systems for their real time activity assessment decision-supporting system based on weighing plants.
  
• This year the Innovation Award of the Hungarian Intellectual Property Office was won by Kőröstej dairy producer for its innovations in manufacturing and packaging technology and its success on international markets.

  
• Startup Innovation Award of the Hungarian Association for Innovation went to Shapr3D Zrt. for their design and modelling application.

  
• The jury awarded a special prize to Agrova Kft. and Phylazonit Kft. for their technology that improves the quality of soil.


  

Out of the 29 applications submitted another 8 innovations and 4 start-ups received further recognition.

Source: MTI