The future performance and competitiveness of the new Hungarian innovation ecosystem largely depend on increased local cooperation between stakeholders, such as policy-makers, higher education and research institutions, businesses and professional organisations; which can boost the innovation potential of each region in line with the priorities of the Smart Specialisation Strategy. The Territorial Innovation Platforms (TIP) initiative aims to facilitate territorial partnerships across the country based on university knowledge bases with an aim to ensure direct access to information about innovation policy directions, enable and strengthen cooperation between local innovators, and create new professional foundations.

To this end, building on the existing university centres and focusing on the real strengths of key regional innovators, and with the policy support of the Ministry for Innovation and Technology, the NRDI Office intends to create new hubs which adopt a new approach to facilitate information flow, knowledge transfer, collaboration and networking.

So far, the TIP charter document has been signed by 11 universities in Budapest and 7 more in rural Hungary. In addition, 5 national professional organisations and many local stakeholders of the innovation ecosystem have joined the initiative. Already functioning platforms:

• University of Miskolc Territorial Innovation Platform – Miskolc
• University of Debrecen Territorial Innovation Platform – Debrecen
• Széchenyi István University Territorial Innovation Platform – Győr
• University of Pécs Territorial Innovation Platform – Pécs
• University of Szeged Territorial Innovation Platform – Szeged
• Budapest Territorial Innovation Platform
• University of Pannonia Territorial Innovation Platform – Veszprém
• Szent István University Territorial Innovation Platform – Gödöllő

TIPs operate locally, under the coordination of the NRDI Office, primarily in the framework of thematic, professional events and workshops.