“Hungary is currently a moderate innovator according to the European Innovation Scoreboard, but the long-term aim is to become a strong innovator country by 2030. The new RDI strategy is also being developed with this target in mind. From 2021, in its new framework programme, the EU is expected to give priority to improving the innovative capacity of member countries, so the Ministry is planning for this period,” said Ádám Szigeti, Deputy Secretary of State for Innovation at the Ministry for Innovation and Technology in the last event of the Forum held at the Budapest Corvinus University. The Hungarian Innovation Forum launched jointly by the Ministry and the NRDI Office on 5 February 2019 aimed to ground the Hungarian innovation ecosystem being re-organised and to assess the needs and suggestions relating to the system of RDI calls being renewed.
“Good news is that the R&D spending of Hungarian businesses has been increasing for several years, so by now the business sector has become the largest investor into domestic research and development. However, the major part of this expenditure can be linked to not more than ten large stakeholders. Only 30% of domestic businesses with at least ten employees can be regarded as innovative, while the rest of the sector does not consider innovation necessary at all, according to a fresh survey of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office. By improving the innovation potential and performance of SMEs, we could mobilise huge reserves in the Hungarian economy. So, they are the primary target group of awareness-raising, they should be conscious of how important, yet how ordinary a task innovation is” pointed out Dr. Zoltán Birkner, President of the NRDI Office.
In the framework of the series of events covering all the counties of Hungary and implemented through broad professional collaboration, with the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry as its main professional partner, experts of the Ministry and the NRDI Office gave presentations together with the representatives of the Hungarian Intellectual Property Office, Bay Zoltán Research Institute, 19 universities and 25 vocational training centres. To maximise the outreach of the consultation, the NRDI Office has launched an online survey in the topic, which is available online until 12 March 2019 here: www.orszagos-innovacios-forum.hu/kerdoiv
PHOTOS OF THE EVENT
