The visit was occasioned by the inaugural meeting of the Hungarian-Philippine Joint Science and Technology Committee, which was organized by the NRDI Office on 5 December 2022. From the Hungarian side, the Committee was chaired by Dr. István Szabó, Vice-Chairman for Science and International Affairs.
Based on the bilateral Memorandum of Understanding on Science and Technology Cooperation signed on 8 April 2022, the parties established the Joint S&T Committee, whose first meeting was held to develop concrete steps for cooperation.
The following priority areas have been identified as the main directions for science and technology cooperation:
- Sustainable Agriculture (including Aquaculture)
- ITC (with a focus on Quantum Technology)
- Water management
- Smart cities
- Nuclear energy
The Commission agreed to promote research exchanges between the two countries through joint programmes in the identified areas of cooperation and to support the organisation of joint workshops and conferences in the future.
The purpose of the visit was also to assess the concrete potential of the partnership and to identify the key players on both sides in the priority areas identified.
To this end, the NRDI Office organised further professional programmes for the DOST delegation, which included meetings at the Quantum Informatics National Laboratory/Wigner Research Centre for Physics, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics of BME, the Faculty of Informatics of ELTE and the Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences in Gödöllő.
