Hungary’s new research network head meets university representatives

Miklós Maróth, head of the Eötvös Loránd Research Network (ELKH), has met with university representatives to begin talks on expectations and cooperation concerning the new research, development and innovation system, Budapest’s Szent István University said on Friday.

Lawmakers approved amendments to legislation early in July that relocated the research institutions of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences to the ELKH, a body with its own, independent budget chapter.

At the meeting, the university representatives said the higher education institutions set to play key roles in the development of the new R+D+I system were now better prepared to use the extra funds they receive thanks to the chancellery system, the university said in a statement.

Stable management and infrastructural developments have made the universities capable of carrying out innovation-related tasks, they said.

The university cited Maróth as saying that the government funds spent on research would have to yield “tangible” results for the Hungarian economy and society in general. The economy will need more Hungarian patents and inventions if it is to get stronger, he said.

Next year’s budget earmarks an extra 32 billion forints (EUR 98.2m) towards R+D+I, “thereby establishing the conditions for uniform, performance-based financing”, the statement added.

The government aims to strengthen R+D+I in Hungary so that it could make an even greater contribution to the country’s progress, the university said.

Source: MTI