One of the funding schemes of the Competitive Central-Hungary Operational Programme (VEKOP) fosters a specific stage of innovation which is often difficult to finance from the market: prototype development. Prototype does not necessarily refer to a physical product, as for instance, an IT process can also be at this stage of development. This was the case with StreamNovation Szoftverfejlesztő Ltd., one of the winners of the latest call, whose project, if successful, can lay new foundations for pharmaceutical research.

After 2017, Wessling Hungary Ltd measured the amount of microplastic particles in the Tisza River and Tisza Lake again this year and found levels of contamination similar to that of waters abroad. The company won more than HUF 138 million in funding for the development of sampling methods under the NRDI Office’s “Support of business RDI activities” call.

BHE Bonn Hungary Ltd, a company fully owned by Hungarians, delivers equipment enabling high frequency communication in many parts of the world. The company’s devices ensure stable communication for disaster management and law enforcement organisations, and its technology provides the infrastructure for seamless wireless communication in dozens of tunnels in Western Europe.

With the support of the European Commission’s Translational Services and ALLEA Member Academies, a new set of translations of the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity were published in June 2018. The new available translations include Hungarian. The European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity serves the European research community as a framework for self-regulation across all scientific and scholarly disciplines and for all research settings.

A UK User Consultation Meeting took place in London at the Royal Society on 11th June where the members of the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) consortium (the Czech, Romanian and Hungarian laser centres,) provided up to date information on the proposed operation of the laser facilities to the UK user community.

AITIA is a small business and yet a global brand: their solutions are used by large market leading companies, although they develop internal network systems, so the broader public knows less about them. They have contributed to every level of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the successful projects triggered an avalanche of success and interest.

The Centre for University-Industry Cooperation (FIEK with Hungarian abbreviation) was established last year at the BME (Budapest University of Technology and Economics) based on the outcomes of cooperation between industry and academia throughout several decades. The aim of the organisation is to coordinate the professional competences of the university and find solutions to complex industrial problems. In several cases, more than one faculty is required to solve a problem and it is also beneficial for industrial partners to share their complex tasks with the specialists of several areas. The centre has just started its operation but its benefits are already tangible. They will also cater for market needs to an increasing extent.

One of the winners in the first round of the call announced by the NRDI Office in 2017 for thematic applications initiated by young researchers, was Andrea Fekete, assistant lecturer at the 1st Department of Paediatrics of Semmelweis University, who formerly set up her diabetes research group funded by the Momentum (Lendület) Programme. With her similarly young colleagues, she is working on developing a new pharmaceutical drug and an organ preservation solution to be used for kidney transplantation but they also serve medicine by trying to understand the effects of medications and the extension of their use. A start-up she launched with Ádám Vannay may bring significant commercial benefits.

A breakthrough has been made in evolutionary medicine and the research of personalised immune responses by Csaba Pál, Bolyai Prize-winning biologist, head of the Evolutionary Systems Biology Group at the Biological Research Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Szeged. His project was funded in the Frontline programme of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NRDI Office).

Hungary’s highest-resolution electron microscope has been deployed at the Institute of Technical Physics and Materials Science of the HAS Centre for Energy Research, promising successful projects in discovery research and business RDI projects in materials science. The implementation was  financed under the Competitive Central Hungary Operational Programme (CCHOP/VEKOP).

The European Commission proposes EUR 100 billion for research and innovation in the EU’s next long-term budget for 2021–2027 – Commission Vice-President responsible for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness said at a press conference in Brussels on Thursday. Hungary’s position on the next framework programme starting in 2021 was prepared by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office in 2017. Summary on the key points of the new framework programme.

Hungary may by the next to cross the boundaries of theory in quantum physics: things that text books formerly mentioned as mere curiosities are soon to become real experiments here and some of them have already been incorporated into the curriculum. Better imaging, quantum computers for so far unsolvable mathematical problems and a boom of hyperloop may come round the corner. What are Hungarian researchers working on, what the money is needed for? Anyway, what is quantum physics all about?

The ERA Net SGplusRegSys is an European joint programming initiative to develop integrated, regional, smart energy systems enabling regions and local communities to realize their high sustainable energy ambitions. The Hungarian funding agency participant is the National RDI Office. The action will set up a joint programming initiative to develop Smart, Integrated, Regional Energy Systems.

The European Investment Fund (EIF) and UniCredit have signed an agreement to increase the InnovFin SME guarantee aimed at improving access to finance for innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and small mid-caps in eight countries.

Enterprise Hungary is organizing the first Startup Campus Regional University Idea Battle in professional collaboration with Hiventures. The unique program connects universities, market participants and investors with students from 10 European countries. The winning startup idea can receive an investment offer of up to 500.000 euro.

The French Embassy in Hungary is funding up to 5 scholarships for a one-month scientific research stay in France as an accelerator for the best projects led in the frame of the BALATON program.

International research cooperation is an important pillar of the Helmholtz Association’s strategy, with a special emphasis on European collaboration. The ‘Helmholtz European Partnering’ program targets cooperation projects with partners from Central, Eastern and Southern European countries.

Organised by the European Commission, this year Budapest hosted the ICT Proposers’ Day, the information and networking event of Horizon 2020, the EU’s framework programme for research, development and innovation. The event, which was broken down to thematic sessions, featured representatives of domestic universities, research institutes and innovative Hungarian businesses, as well as the National Contact Points (NPCs) of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office.