The key to Hungary’s future-proofness is to digitise the economy, strengthen healthy living and the green transition. HUF 35 billion is available for this objective in the Programme Strategy published today. The success of innovations is also helped by the fact that projects are required to generate revenue and patent the innovations developed. The new call for proposals will tighten up the implementation period of projects, and the newly established National Innovation Agency (NIÜ) will play a key role in providing ongoing technical support to projects.

The Programme Strategy pays special attention to supporting spin-offs, i.e. businesses with a high growth potential and significant domestic added value, as well as to strengthening industrial property protection activity and successful participation in international funding programmes. The Hungarian Research Network will be internationalised through the HUF 5 billion Forefront Plus call, which aims to attract excellent Hungarian and foreign researchers to Hungary. The programmes that support research careers will continue: the OTKA, which supports research excellence, with a budget of HUF 13.5 billion, the New National Excellence Programme, which fosters the next generation of researchers, with a budget of HUF 3.5 billion, and the Cooperative Doctoral Programme, with a budget of nearly HUF 5.1 billion.

The 2023 Programme Strategy’s funding schemes are organised around the three key words of the John von Neumann Programme. The first is association, which means linking universities, research institutions and the economy. The second is impact: research and innovation should produce economic, social and intellectual results. The third is measurement, which means the continuous and reliable monitoring of the performance indicators relevant to the given funding schemes. Such performance indicators may include high-quality publications, revenue-generating patents, a product or sales revenue. Achieving the goals set out in the strategy will help to create high value-added jobs in Hungary and raise the living standards of Hungarian families.

The NRDI Fund Programme Strategy 2023 and details of the John von Neumann Programme are available on the website of the National Research, Development and Innovation (NRDI) Office.

Budapest, 15 June 2023

Source: Ministry of Culture and Innovation