In his press release, Tamás Schanda, parliamentary state secretary of the ministry, pointed out that the innovation contest targeting students under the age of 20 met with unprecedented interest; 140 project ideas were received in the first round. He added that young people achieving the highest ranking at the 30th Scientific and Innovation Talent Recruitment Contest for Youth will be granted scholarships.
He explained: the government aims to enable Hungarian students to be the winners of the future, but for this it is essential for them to have an innovative approach in addition to knowledge and expertise. They also disclosed that based on the evaluation panel’s recommendation, 82 project proposals were admitted to the second round allowing 113 students to compete for a total of HUF 2.5 million in scholarship. Podium also carries a lot of weight at university admission, it will worth 100 extra points and the most efficacious coaches and secondary schools will also be granted substantial funding.
The contest announced in school year 2020/21 was open to project ideas until the end of last November. At this special competition, young people under the age of 20 undertake to solve certain challenges they consider important through their own individual innovative projects. Professor László Jakab, chair of the evaluation panel disclosed in the press release that they evaluated primarily the originality of the approach to the problem and the creativity with which it was solved and selected the most promising projects based on their scientific value and viability.
According to the press release, President Zoltán Birkner of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office found that this year’s competition is particularly stiff. In the announcement the president emphasised: “We are glad that the mobilisation of secondary school students and teachers went so well as an unprecedented number of projects were received. Talented young people representing the new generation of scholars and research and development experts play a key role in the Hungarian innovation community.”
Competitors passing through to the second round mostly sought solutions to IT and technical problems. The detailed project proposals are to be submitted until 1 April 2021. The evaluation panel will award the scholarships of a total of HUF 2.5 million at the end of April when they will also select the top three projects to represent Hungary in the European finals, MTI disclosed.
Source: MTI