ERCIM News No.46, July 2001 [contents]

Considerable Increase in R&D State Funding in Hungary

Recognizing the outstanding importance of research and development, the Hungarian Government initiated a Research, Development and Innovation Programme within the frame of an economic plan called ëSzÈchenyi Planí. With this programme, Hungary will strengthen state involvement in R&D, and at the same time, motivate the engagement of enterprises in closer cooperation with the public research and development sphere. National Research and Development Programmes are important parts of the programme.

In 1999 the Hungarian Government established the Science and Technology Policy Council (STPC) and its Science Advisory Board (SAB) and empowered SAB to work out the principles for the Hungarian science and technology policy, to make an assessment of the research activities in Hungary, and to define thematic priorities for research. Independent studies and discussions resulted in the document ëScience and Technology Policy 2000í outlining a long- term development programme for Hungarian science, technology and innovation. The document contains, among other things, the following main recommendations on which the Research, Development and Innovation Programme of the SzÈchenyi Plan is based:

• working out an attractive, performance-based faculty and researcher career model
• strengthening the existing scientific research units and increasing their absorbing capabilities for competition-based funding
• strengthening the competition-based research funding schemes as the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA) and the Technological Development Fund
• launching the new National Research and Development Programmes.

To achieve the above goals, the central budget of 2001 and 2002 allocate substantial state funds. In 2001 the R&Dís budget support will increase at least by 17.5 billion HUF (approx. 68 million Euro), and in 2002 by an additional 19 billion (approx. 73 million Euro). This will mean a considerable nominal increase of 61% in two years. The total research and development expenditure is planned to reach 1.5 percent of the GDP by 2002, a significant increase in 4 years (starting from about 0.8 percent in 1998).

National Research and Development Programmes

As a result of an approved government resolution, the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Hungary launched a call for application in the following fields:

• Improving the quality of life
• Information and communication technologies
• Environmental and material research
• Research on agribusiness and biotechnology
• Research on the national heritage and contemporary social challenge.

The final call for proposals was announced on the 15th of January, 2001. The support for these programmes will be 5.75 billion HUF (approx. 22,25 million Euro) in 2001 and 10 billion HUF (approx. 39 million Euro) in 2002. In Programmes 1-4 the minimum amount for the whole project cycle is 100 million HUF (approx. 0,39 million Euro). In the review process the project proposals submitted by consortia of institutions enjoyed preferences. The programme and their projects are application-oriented and cooperation- targeted, maintaining an excellence in original research. The decision about the successful applications has been announced recently.

Programme 2 — Information and Communication Technologies