Budapest, 6 December 2024 - Call for applications for the new Large Company Focus Area Innovation Programme open from Friday.

Applications for the new Large Company Focus Area Innovation Programme can be submitted from Friday, announced László Bódis, Deputy State Secretary for Innovation of the Ministry of Culture and Innovation, at a press conference on Friday.

The call is open to large Hungarian companies that can submit their applications either individually or in a consortium with small and medium-sized enterprises. He also pointed out that the involvement of a university or research institute in the programme is mandatory.

The total budget of the call is HUF 15 billion, with a minimum of HUF 1.5 billion and a maximum of HUF 3 billion per project and an aid intensity of around 50 percent, he said.

The call is available on the website of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office and applications can be submitted until 28 February. According to the Deputy State Secretary, the decisions on the applications are expected to be taken in late spring or early summer.

The Large Company Focus Area Innovation Programme invites applications in the three focus areas of the John von Neumann Programme, namely digital transformation, green transformation and healthy living.

László Bódis stressed that while strengthening the small and medium-sized enterprise sector, we should not forget about large Hungarian-owned enterprises as they play a crucial role in the Hungarian economy not only in terms of employment, but also in terms of generating added value and their ability to pay wages.

The strategic objective of this call is to bring together universities, research institutes and the corporate sector, he stressed, adding that the aim is to support developments where large companies and university and research institute teams work closely together.

Two sub-programmes will be available for the programme. One is a sub-programme for industrial product development, aiming to develop and market new innovative product services and technologies in the coming years. The other is a sub-programme for knowledge and capacity building, which aims to create long-term partnerships between large companies and universities that can feed the innovation processes of large companies for up to 3-5-8-10 years.

The programme is expected to increase the competitiveness of the Hungarian-owned large companies sector not only in Hungary, but also on international markets, the Deputy State Secretary pointed out, stressing that new products, new technologies, new services, new R&D jobs, new patents, new educational and research cooperation between companies and universities and research institutes will be created, which will continue in the long term and will not be limited to one project.

Source: MTI