Page 43 - Roadmap

7.4. Physical Sciences and Engineering

Using available cutting-edge large facilities, complex equipment and research infrastructures, Physical Sciences and Engi-
neering (PSE) researchers, on the one hand, perform basic research and enrich scientific knowledge in their own, well-de-
fined fields of science, and on the other hand, apply the analytical methods and data processing techniques developed over
years to achieve R&D results which can facilitate progress in other scientific fields or in the industry. The development of
PSE research infrastructures exhibit this duality: they are strongly interdisciplinary and most of their large facilities (par-
ticularly those suitable for materials testing) are heavily used by industrial actors and researchers from other fields. This
strong demand greatly influences the design, construction and operation methods of many large facilities.

PSE infrastructures are used to examine an abundance of things: from the smallest elementary particles that make up
matter and the formation and current large-scale behaviour of the universe, to the properties of everyday materials, metals,
semiconductors, nanosystems and biological samples.

The high-value research equipment established by the joint effort of several countries provide a significant competitive
advantage to their users, but to use PSE research infrastructures it is also essential to have a network of local laboratories
where the projects are prepared for the large facilities and professionals are trained. All efforts must be made to integrate
local laboratories, and small and medium sized national infrastructures into internationally acclaimed, highly significant
PSE infrastructures.

The following part of the chapter will summarise how large international facilities that are considered important for PSE
research from a Hungarian perspective are connected to smaller national equipment and laboratories; to what extent Hun-
gary managed to catch up and lay the foundations of further development in recent years; and what are Hungary’s take-
off opportunities and hidden potentials.

Photo: Szigeti Tamás / MTA

Figure 4: Spherical-aberration-corrected electron microscope at the Wigner Research Centre for Physics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences

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