In its communication, the Ministry reiterated that applicants to the call announced in April had to find potential solutions for the health and social situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The number of high-quality project ideas and proposals greatly exceeded our expectations, so we decided to double the budget of the call,” the Parliamentary and Strategic State Secretary of ITM said, as quoted in the Ministry’s communication.

According to the document, Tamás Schanda also said in appreciation that the pandemic had united the nation in an unprecedented way, and the willingness to help had motivated many people to come up with innovative ideas.

Based on ITM information, 29 project proposals and 5 project ideas have been awarded so far in the contest which is also supported by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office.

Winning projects typically dealt with health and medicine, digital education and other fields of engineering. More specifically, the topics covered by funded projects include an autonomous indoor disinfection robot, the development of a distance learning and testing system for clinical studies, virus diagnostics development, a solution supporting SME lending optimized for mobile devices, an online learning system for learning at home, and a development enabling automated mass screenings – the Ministry disclosed.

Source: MTI