Opposition complains funding for science academy research diverted to new ministry

The opposition Jobbik party has called for a special session of parliament’s education committee to discuss the transfer of a portion funds for the research institutes of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences to the innovation and technology ministry in the 2019 draft budget.

Speaking at a press conference, MP of the radical nationalist party Koloman Brenner called on the government to withdraw the section of next year’s draft budget pertaining to the Academy of Sciences, saying that “the future of academic research in Hungary” depended on it.

He noted that 29 billion forints (EUR 89.7m) allocated to university R+D and 13 billion forints earmarked for the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA) were also being given to the ministry.

László Palkovics, the minister of innovation and technology, has dismissed concerns that the government is stepping on the toes of scientific researchers of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA). Palkovics’s new ministry recently announced it will distribute almost 70 billion forints (EUR 216m) of R+D funding to state institutions.

Critics say the government is depriving the Academy of some of its funding and redeploying it.

In an interview, Palkovics denied that the ministry was taking over the management of research institutes or telling researchers what to do.

The government created the innovation and technology ministry to optimise spending on scientific research and it does not question the importance of basic research, he told commercial broadcaster Echo TV late on Monday.

But he insisted that the ministry should have a say in determining some areas of research that are important for the Hungarian public.

In the last four years, research funding has involved a process whereby universities and the government agreed on areas of focus proposed by the institutes, Palkovics said. They then received funding and assigned the scientists to carry out the research.