Health is something we truly appreciate when we don’t have it. When we are well, we don’t even think about it; we take it for granted. But fortunately, there are those who make con-siderable efforts to identify – and solve – health problems affecting society. A good example in Hungary is the HU-rizon Programme of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NRDI Office) that promotes international research collaborations between leading Hungarian research institutions, focusing not only on healthy living but also on the challenges of digitalisation and the green transition.

Even if we live as healthily as possible, there are processes over which we have little control. These include environmental pollution and the resulting health risks (think of the microplastics that accu-mulate in our bodies, the harmful effects of which are increasingly being reported in the media), but also newly emerging epidemics such as COVID, which has left a deep impression on our memories.

It is no wonder that the healthcare industry is focusing its efforts on developing epidemic forecasting, prevention, diagnostics and treatments, so that revolutionary new advances can help us keep pace and deal with increasingly pressing problems as effectively as possible. These are social, economic and scientific challenges that are important for both Hungary and the entire world – and therefore require joint efforts to overcome them. These topics are being researched worldwide, not in isolation, in a ‘vacuum’, but in collaborations and consortia spanning countries and often continents.

The HU-rizon Programme of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office promotes such collaborations: the programme aims to launch international research projects led by excellent Hungarian workshops and involving the world’s top universities and research institutes, focusing on solving social and economic challenges of importance to Hungary and the world in general, including healthcare issues. Launched in 2024, the programme brings together 95 institutions from 25 countries on four continents, led by outstanding Hungarian research groups.

One of the focus areas of the HU-rizon Programme is supporting preventive, curative and care systems to maintain healthy living. In this context, the focus was specifically on improving the quality of life of the elderly, various disease prevention and health promotion developments and research, as well as the development of a wide variety of innovative tools, instruments and therapies.

Under the HU-rizon Programme for 2024, thirty projects from eleven Hungarian universities received funding. The NRDI Office’s new nationwide series of events is designed to showcase these research projects not only to the scientific community but also to general public. The first stop of the nationwide programme series is hosted by the University of Szeged (SZTE), one of the most successful applicants with eight winning international projects led by outstanding researchers from Szeged, including those dedicated to advancing healthcare innovations.

But what kind of research are we talking about specifically?

• The ambitious goal of the BREATHGASES research group, for example, is to create a device that can diagnose certain diseases associated with circulatory disorders in the intestinal tract by analysing patients’ exhaled air. Imagine what a huge step forward that would be! It would enable diagnoses to be made using a new, non-invasive method... The SZTE research group is working on this problem in collaboration with researchers from Heidelberg University and the Austrian Ludwig Boltzmann Institute.
• In the CANDIVAC project, researchers in Szeged are collaborating with colleagues from the University of Pennsylvania, founded by Benjamin Franklin, and King’s College London to develop a new weapon against diseases caused by fungal infections. We fight bacteria with antibiotics and viruses with vaccines, but right now there’s no effective way to treat fungal infections. The research supported by HU-rizon therefore aims to develop an effective mRNA-based vaccine against Candida fungi.
• The NANO-IBD research project aiming to treat inflammatory bowel diseases (such as Crohn’s disease) using nanoparticles with enzyme activity (nanozymes) to combat oxidative stress during inflammation could be a major breakthrough. In this project, research groups from the University of Tokyo and McGill University in Canada have partnered with the University of Szeged.
• A healthy environment is also crucial to our health. If our environment is polluted, our bodies have to fight off many more attacks and we are less able to resist disease. There are sources of pollution that we are only now beginning to recognize. For example, what effect do micro-plastics, now omnipresent in our environment, have on our bodies? This is what researchers in Szeged, working with colleagues from the University of Cambridge and the University of Ulm, are working to find out in the winning NOEMA project.
• Epidemic analysis and modelling were not familiar concepts in everyday life until the COVID outbreak, but during COVID, we all learned what they mean. In the RAPID-GRIP project, researchers at the University of Szeged are working with Yale University and Kyoto University to develop even more sophisticated epidemic models that incorporate social, behavioural, economic, and immunological components. As a result of their work, we are better prepared for the emergence of a new pathogen that could cause an epidemic, enabling international organ-izations to respond more quickly and effectively in the event of another crisis.

As is clear from the foregoing, in the international collaborations of the HU-rizon Programme, out-standing Hungarian researchers work with their foreign colleagues to prevent, diagnose, and treat health problems that make people’s lives miserable, for a healthier and thus more fulfilling life. The aim is to strengthen international cooperation supported under the programme and enable Hungarian scientists to lead further international cooperation on innovative, novel healthcare solutions.

In addition to increasing the visibility of the projects, the HU-rizon Roadshow event in Szeged will also help to share experiences and pass on best practices: after presentations in the morning and panel discussions, also open to the press, researchers involved in the projects will be able to further develop their skills in a workshop on new trends in drawing up proposals for calls, which could lead to further international success.