Government to spend EUR 3.9 bn on research until 2020

Budapest, May 2 (MTI) – The government is planning to spend a total of 1,200 billion forints (EUR 3.9bn) on research, development, and innovation, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Monday.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the general assembly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Orbán said that the total will bring Hungary close to the European average of research spending-GDP ratio of 1.9 percent.

“The future and quality of Hungary’s science is not a political issue,” Orbán said in his address. He insisted that there was an increased global demand for scientists, and countries not only in the west but also in the east have created attractive conditions for talented ones. “The Hungarian government and the Academy cannot accept an intellectually subordinate and vulnerable position,” he said, and suggested that Hungary would meet the challenge.

Speaking about the government’s contribution to Hungary’s scientific development, the prime minister said that the country raised its science spending from 1 percent of GDP in 2010 to 1.4 percent in 2016, financing such projects as the CERN-Wigner Data Centre or allocating some 12 billion forints to the national brain research programme between 2014-17.

Photo: MTI

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters