The ITM press release informed that students, young academics and researchers pursuing bachelor, master or PhD studies can submit their applications online until 20 May for the total program budget of HUF 4 billion. This year again a separate call is dedicated to talented doctoral candidates and postdoctors to ensure that all stages of research careers are supported.

According to the press release, the call for applications announced for academic year 2021/2022 is under the professional coordination of the managing organisation of ITM, the National Research, Development and Innovation (NRDI) Office.

The statement quotes József Bódis, state secretary for higher education, innovation and vocational training of the Ministry who said: the goal of the programme launched for the sixth time is to strengthen the scientific and creative performance of universities and encourage the education of the next generation of RDI scientists by supporting individual excellence. He pointed out that this year over 2200 people can receive funding under six schemes.

István Szabó, vice president of NRDI Office highlighted: NNEP helps to keep the most outstanding teachers and researchers in science, and to motivate young researchers in their most productive period of their careers, as well as their higher education institutions. He also added that the intensity of interest for the schemes is shown by the fact that despite the pandemic, in 2020 the number of project proposals received increased.

The press release informed that the NNEP schemes with the highest budget are Research Scholarship Applications for Young Bolyai + Higher Education Teachers and the Research Scholarship for PhD Students with HUF 1.4 billion and HUF 1 billion, respectively. The detailed conditions for application and the documentation are available at the NNEP website.

Project proposals may be submitted by university students, doctoral students, doctoral candidates, post doctors, young academics and researches pursuing successful research and creative activities at any of the 24 higher education institutions of the programme. In all cases, the project proposals are to submitted online to the given university, ITM informed. They explained that the grant periods vary by schemes with minimum five and maximum twelve months. Awardees will receive a net monthly grant of HUF 100,000 to 200,000, the universities will receive 40% of the amount awarded to their beneficiaries for operating and research costs.

So far, 8500 scholarships have been awarded in the programme since its launch in 2016.

Source: MTI