Based on the evaluation of the firsthand information and the experience gained from the next peer review to take place in April, the group is going to prepare a detailed report by mid-2016.

Hosting one of the meetings, József Pálinkás, President of the NRDI Office, presented a comprehensive picture of the current RDI policy objectives, directives and the ongoing reform of the domestic institutional and financing system relating to research, development and innovation. At one point, Professor Mark Ferguson, head of the panel of independent experts, asked the president to choose a recommendation he would include in the report, if he could do so. “Can I say only one?” József Pálinkás asked in response triggering laughter in the audience; but then he mentioned the cooperation between higher education institutions, research centres and industrial actors as clearly the top priority. Subsequently, the experts asked questions from the senior representatives responsible for strategy making, the planning of calls for applications, analysis and researchers' thematic applications. The experts also held other group meetings with the representatives of the ministries competent in RDI, officials from the Academy and universities, decision-makers of multinational companies, SMEs and innovative start-ups, as well as the representatives of professional organisations. The meetings focused on the following topics: RDI control, financing and policy-making, human resources in the field of RDI, cooperation between science and industry, technology transfer and entrepreneurship, and the framework conditions for innovation in the business sector. The consultation held with consultants and venture capitalists gave a better idea to analysts about how the market benefits from the results of research and development.

Members of the independent expert group:

• Professor Mark Ferguson, Head of the Group, Director General of Science Foundation Ireland, Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government of Ireland
  
• Professor Krzysztof Klincewicz, Rapporteur, Lecturer at Warsaw University, Poland
  
• Professor Jakob Edler, Executive Director at the MBS Manchester Institute of Innovation Research, United Kingdom
  
• Marjan Oudeman, President of Utrecht University Executive Board, the Netherlands
  

The experts are assisted by four external peers from Austria, Finland, France and Slovenia, all of them fulfilling offices in governmental RDI organisations which require special expertise.

József Pálinkás (NRDIO), Gyula Szigeti (NRDIO), Urban Krajcar, Andrea Höglinger	István Szabó (NRDIO), Tamás Attila Kiss (NRDIO), Zoltán Peredy (NRDIO)
Dr. Erja Ritva Kaarina Heikkinen, Benoît Legait	Urban Krajcar, Andrea Höglinger
Jószef Pálinkás, President (NRDIO)	Krzysztof Klincewicz, Mark Ferguson
Marnix Surgeon, Annamária Németh	József Pálinkás (NRDIO), Mark Ferguson