Budapest, 04 April 2025 The National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NRDI Office) is once again announcing its highly successful call for proposals, which provides up to HUF 7.5 million in non-refundable funding for businesses, research institutions and individuals to obtain legal protection for their intellectual creations. The newly launched call has a total budget of HUF 500 million, which can cover not only official fees related to obtaining protection in Hungary and abroad, but also the typically higher costs of intellectual property consultancy and related patent attorney services.

For years, the NRDI Office has been supporting this cause through targeted calls for proposals, so that a wide range of applicants – including even the smallest micro-enterprises or individual inventors – can benefit from this opportunity and obtain protection for newly developed products, technologies or brands through the Hungarian Intellectual Property Office (SZTNH). A key goal of the John von Neumann Programme is to increase patent activity among Hungarian businesses and universities. A significant achievement is that the number of patent applications increased by 35% year-on-year last year. Patent activity at universities rose sharply: a total of 143 applications were submitted by higher education institutions last year, which represents a twofold increase compared to the previous year and a sevenfold increase compared to five years ago.

“Having an intellectual property protection strategy and ensuring its utilisation are key foundations for the success of Hungarian innovation. Through awareness-raising, education and a targeted system of incentives, we support and motivate domestic stakeholders to increase their intellectual property activity. This call for proposals offers a unique opportunity to finance costs arising at key decision points in the domestic and international protection processes, ultimately facilitating the acquisition of Hungarian, European and international intellectual property rights. For international PCT patent applications, both the Visegrad Patent Institute and the European Patent Office can be designated as international searching authorities,” emphasised Szabolcs Farkas, President of the SZTNH.

“This call is a key milestone in strengthening the competitiveness of domestic businesses and knowledge-producing research institutions. We encourage everyone to make increasingly conscious use of the intellectual property protection toolkit, as this helps ensure that research results and innovative ideas can lead to tangible competitive advantages and significant economic success,” pointed out Zsuzsa Szabados, Vice President for Business Innovation of the NRDI Office.

Since 2015, a total of 647 applications have received more than HUF 940 million in funding through previous calls for proposals announced by the NRDI Office with similar aims.

Further details about the call for proposals are available on the website of the NRDI Office.