The call titled Researcher-initiated research projects (K_17) was open until 2 March 2017 for promising researcher-initiated basic research projects in any field of science without thematic priorities.
This year 635 project proposals were submitted with a total claim of HUF 20.5 billion in funding.
As researchers under 40 years of age could apply for a separate budget under the call titled Research projects initiated by young researchers (FK_17), participation rate have significantly decreased in the K_17 scheme: as opposed to the continuous increase in the past years the number of project proposals has dropped this year. Nevertheless, the total demand for funding exceeded the available budget by more than three times. The call for curiosity-driven researcher-initiated research projects, which was open to proposals from any field of science, contributed to the launch of 197 new projects with a total of HUF 6.5 billion in funding.
Project proposals were assessed by anonymous experts against the criteria indicated in the Application Guidelines, with the involvement of expert panels and specialised scientific boards. Accepting the recommendation of the decision preparation bodies, the President of the NRDI Office selected 197 project proposals for funding with the following distribution between fields of science:

At an open forum in February 2017 the President of the NRDI Office summarised the lessons drawn from the assessment process of discovery research calls with the aim of preparing next year’s call, helping applicants to get prepared and upgrading the assessment process. Review of Competitive RDI Calls – programmes fostering discovery research (1 February 2017)

FUNDED PROJECTS

Funding organisation: NRDI Office
Source: NRDI Fund
Date of decision: 10 July 2017