The NRDI Office organised the National Innovation Forum in February 2019 with the specific aim to make all stakeholders in the ecosystem more aware of the importance of innovation and to directly contribute with proposals to the renewal of the innovation system and the competitive funding system. This way, over 2800 stakeholders were involved in the planning process, and the experience learnt from these consultations and the subsequent public consultation has already been incorporated into this year’s largest funding scheme.

Due to its policy relevance and volume, the call for market-drive RDI project proposals can be well regarded as the most important innovation funding scheme this year which has sparked huge excitement among domestic applicants. Eligible actions under the call include the development of marketable products, technologies or services, and the upgrading of prototypes to marketable products. With a total budget of HUF 45 billion for two sub-programmes, the call aims to improve the competitiveness of businesses of different size by supporting their market-oriented RDI projects and collaborations with similar objectives.

By making the online application form available today, the applicants can already start to prepare for the submission of their proposals. The system is expected to receive funding requests from 19 July 2019, and the final deadline for submission will be 5 August 2019. However, the NRDI Office has already indicated that it will close the submission period earlier, if the total amount of funding requests exceeds four times the available budget.

Budapest, 12 July 2019