The Minister of Culture and Innovation announced on Saturday in Debrecen that 30 projects will be implemented under the HU-Rizon program with a budget of 12 billion forints.
Balázs Hankó emphasized that due to Brussels excluding Hungarian researchers and universities from the Horizon and Erasmus programs, the HU-Rizon program was launched as an alternative. Due to the high number of applications, the program’s budget was increased from 8 billion to 12 billion forints, and 30 winners were selected from the 112 submitted proposals.
He noted that all international research collaborations involve the world’s top 100 universities working together with Hungarian universities.
He stressed that “Brussels” has not responded to Hungarian legislation or the Hungarian government’s compromise proposals for a year. This is also why the Pannonia Scholarship Program was launched alongside Erasmus, allowing 3,000 students to attend the world’s best universities instead of 2,000.
Hankó Balázs asserted that “we have evidence” that, contrary to “Brussels,” the world, including the European Union’s scientific community, values Hungarian researchers, as the world’s leading universities are lining up to participate in research led by Hungarian universities.
Among the winning HU-Rizon projects, he highlighted Óbuda University, which, in collaboration with Stanford and the National University of Singapore, is conducting research on medical robotics and artificial intelligence, ensuring cooperation between East and West. The University of Szeged is working with the University of Cambridge and Ulm University to investigate the effects of micro- and nanoparticles of plastics on human health, while the University of Debrecen is creating a research community with Seoul and Florida Universities to develop self-driving vehicles.
“We are focusing on topics that truly aim to solve digitalization, healthy living, and the green transition, which is why the winning programs can be launched with the support of the Hungarian government,” the minister said.
Ádám Kiss, president of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFIH), emphasized that this year, the Hungarian government is allocating more than 150 billion forints from the domestic budget to science policy, research, and innovation.
He pointed out that there is a huge overdemand for all tenders, as evidenced by the HU-Rizon program, for which 112 applicants submitted proposals worth more than 40 billion forints, from which the 30 winning proposals were selected.
In these research projects, the Hungarian side sets the research direction, and the Hungarian government not only finances domestic universities but also the entire budget of the associated top 100 research institutions.
He explained that the tender stipulated that Hungarian universities must involve at least 50% of such foreign institutions in their proposals, which last for a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 3 years.
This will also enable Hungarian higher education institutions to independently lead larger research projects in the future, with up to 5-10 consortium members.
He considered it important for universities to cooperate with economic actors and not only conduct self-serving research but also have a social, economic, and financial impact.
He emphasized that competitiveness is key, and all of NKFIH’s tender structures, which will continue next year along with the HU-Rizon program, contribute to this.
(unideb.hu)
