Hungary is member to 17 European research institutions and pays HUF 3.3 billion per year in membership fees ensuring access for Hungarian researchers to using international research infrastructure, he added encouraging Hungarian researches to take advantage of such memberships.

He underlined that the 17 international research infrastructures cover a wide range of research fields providing opportunities mainly for basic research.

István Szabó told that research proposals of Hungarian applicants are first to be approved by the jury panel of the given institution and he also advised researches to be conducted within an international consortium.

There are application opportunities to cover certain fees associated with using international infrastructure and the costs of participation, the Vice President highlighted.

István Szabó also mentioned that this year an assessment will be made of the extent such opportunities are used by Hungarian researchers and to find additional international research infrastructure that are worth joining.

In his opinion, Hungarian membership in institutions providing international research infrastructures is, by all means, profitable not only because of an increase in intellectual values that are hard to express in money but also because a part of the membership fees paid can be regained by the Hungarian companies supplying to the institutions.