He announced that in the first half of the year HUF 90 billion will be made available to individual researchers, research groups, research institutions and businesses for RDI projects.

László Palkovics, Minister for Innovation and Technology, Zoltán Birkner, President of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NRDIO)

Zoltán Birkner, President of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NRDIO) confirmed to have opened a HUF 3 billion call that enables universities to develop their organisation dedicated to knowledge transfer. He added that public consultations will be held on the business innovation call which is expected to be announced at the end of May with a budget of HUF 45 billion.

László Palkovics emphasised: in the next programming period the EU’s RDI framework programme will be built on three pillars (basic research, applied research addressing global challenges, and innovation ecosystem) and the new Hungarian funding system will be aligned to this.

The minister explained that in connection with basic research the first OTKA calls have already been announced with a total budget of HUF 10 billion and submission will soon be closed. As regards the HUF 14.5 billion allocated to applied research addressing global challenges, funding decisions have been made in the four major areas of the Thematic Excellence Programme (health and health sciences, environment and safety, industry and digitisation, and culture and family) and also the Higher Education Institutions’ Excellence Programme is continued with a budget of HUF 15 billion.

László Palkovics stressed: the aim is to improve the success rate of Hungarian businesses in the future RDI calls of the European Union and to encourage SMEs to take a larger part in financing research, development and innovation. He noted that even more significant state funds would be earmarked for RDI in the 2020-21 budget, according to plans.

Zoltán Birkner reported that forums on innovation were held in 25 venues across the country with 2800 participants. The stakeholders were invited to express their opinions which were considered while designing the new calls.

In relation to the HUF 3 billion call for universities, the President of the NRDI Office highlighted that universities are encouraged to hire professionals who can facilitate the commercialisation of their RDI results and provide a single point of contact for businesses seeking opportunities for collaboration.

Zoltán Birkner, President of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NRDIO)

The NRDI Office compiles a database of university RDI results so that it can refer businesses looking for specific knowledge to the competent university in the framework of its services – Zoltán Birkner added.