Rapid government grant helps research at Hungarian universities

The culture and innovation ministry hosted a consultation with university heads to discuss the issue of EU education, research and mobility schemes on Thursday, and announced a rapid 5 billion forint (EUR 13.2m) government grant allocated in advance to finance the research programmes at Hungarian universities,

Ihe ministry said in a statement that the sides were in agreement that Hungarian universities, students and researchers cannot “suffer the negative consequences of a flawed decision made by Brussels by applying double standards”. The grant’s recipients will include universities that would be excluded “under a discriminative decision by Brussels” from the EU’s Horizon Europe scheme or any other research cooperation programme financed directly by the EU, the statement said. Without the grant, those universities would drop out of the projects, as the deadline for several commitments expires in May, it added.

“The government is committed to its goal of the internationalisation of Hungarian education in light of the significant increase of participants in mobility programmes,” it said, noting that the number of students and teachers participating in such schemes had gone up to 10,000 in 2022 from 8,000 in the previous year, MTI wrote. Access to the EU’s Erasmus+ programme will be ensured throughout 2023 and under government guarantee in 2024 as well, the ministry said.

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