The aim of the Cooperative Doctoral Programme is to further increase the number of employees working in the RDI segment, primarily in the broader STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, mathematics, agriculture, medicine, health and arts), who want to enrich their professional knowledge with the latest scientific research and are committed to the social and economic exploitation of their knowledge. To this end, the doctoral students participating in the programme will do their doctoral research at the doctoral school but in collaboration with the business sector.

Grantees will receive net HUF 400,000 scholarship grant per month. The mentors and experts who assist the grantee and contribute to the implementation of the project will also be rewarded. The gross value of such support is HUF 120,000 per month. The host doctoral school will also receive a grant of HUF 600,000 per semester. The latter may be spent primarily on research, development and innovation (RDI) activities or related infrastructure development, international networking, knowledge transfer or related services.

Applications may be submitted by doctoral students who started their doctoral studies in 2022 and have not yet completed the complex examination by the beginning of the academic year 2023/2024, or by those who will start their doctoral studies in the academic year 2023/2024. It is also important to note that during the period of the KDP scholarship, grantees must have an employment or other work relationship with the partner organisation of their choice for which they are entitled to remuneration.

The submitted applications will be assessed by the Cooperative Doctoral Panel of nine members, in which both the higher education sector and the business sector are represented to ensure a balance of interests and the selection of the best applications.

Following the announcement of results, the NRDI Office will conclude the grant agreements with the higher education institutions hosting the winning doctoral students.
Submissions: from 19 June 2023 to 20 July 2023, 12.00 (CEST) and from 25 July 2023 to 31 July 2023, 12.00 (CEST) .

Applications for the Cooperative Doctoral Programme can be submitted after registration on https://kfivelemeny.nkfih.gov.hu/. After clicking on the “Regisztrálok (Register)” menu item, a short registration form will be opened, where you can activate the registration by ticking the “Szakpolitikai véleménykérő vagyok (I am requesting an RDI policy opinion)” checkbox and accepting the link sent in the confirmation email. To fill in the request click “Kérelmek (Requests) →Új kérelem (New request)” on the menu bar on the left-hand side of the page, for more information on how to fill in the form, please refer to the instructions available on the page. Applicants should note that applications must be submitted via the RDI opinion webpage, where the form must also be completed. Annex 1 to the application is only a sample and does not need to be filled in or uploaded. The following declarations (applicant’s declaration, host institution’s letter of acceptance, doctoral school’s declaration, supervisor’s declaration, employer’s declaration, expert’s declaration) are generated by the system during the application process based on the data provided in the RDI opinion webpage, therefore the application’s Annexes 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 are only templates.

The Ministry of Culture and Innovation is the professional coordinator of the programme, while the National Research, Development and Innovation Office is the operational manager. The programme is financed from the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund.