Hungary’s new innovation strategy will focus on strengthening the knowledge economy, and connecting research centres, universities and the economy. Parliament is about to decide on Hungary’s new innovation strategy, the Neumann János Programme, one of the key elements of which is to foster the next generation of researchers. This is the aim of the newly announced Cooperative Doctoral Programme.

The special scholarship programme supports the scientific careers of talented young Hungarians, tailored to the R&D needs of industry and service sectors. Grantees will receive a monthly grant of HUF 400,000 net for 24 to 43 months to work on their research topic in collaboration with a business, within the institutional framework of a Hungarian university’s doctoral school. In addition to the young researcher, support is also provided to the host doctoral school, the supervisor and the experts of the businesses involved. Under the programme, which has been running since 2020, the National Research, Development and Innovation Office has supported the projects of 366 doctoral students at 19 universities with nearly HUF 14 billion so far.

“Our main objective of the scholarship programme is to foster academia–industry collaboration by enabling doctoral students to define their research topics in a coordinated way with a corporate partner and the university. This is the basis for increasing the number of Hungarian patents, thus strengthening Hungarian innovation and the future potential of our nation,” said Balázs Hankó, State Secretary for Innovation and Higher Education at the Ministry of Culture and Innovation. He added: “The Programme will provide young researchers with another opportunity to implement targeted career development strategies in RDI.

The call for applications for the Cooperative Doctoral Programme is open until 20 July 2023 to all students who are pursuing doctoral studies or will start in the academic year 2023/2024 and are contracted to a corporate partner for their research. The applications will be assessed by a dedicated panel of professionals, including representatives of higher education institutions and the business sector For more information about the programme, please visit the website of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office.

Source: Ministry of Culture and Innovation