The Government wants more research, not less. The goal is for the billions spent on Hungarian scientific research to not disappear without results, but for them to be utilised in the form of patents and inventions that tangibly serve the Hungarian economy.

The committee tasked with providing conclusions and recommendations to assist the joint efforts of the Ministry for Innovation and Technology and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) during the establishment of a more efficient research institute structure, has issued a comprehensive report. Over 40 experts have been working for 4 months on the freshly completed MTA report, included members delegated from the Ministry and the Academy, as well as independent experts.

In addition to acknowledging many results and drawing attention to several benefits, the report also makes many developmental and restructuring proposals with relation to how the future activities of research institutes could be more successful and efficient. According to the report, the maintenance structure and the fundamental principles of financing require a radical change, and at research institute level an increase in performance is required in many places, the foundations of which may be guaranteed by the two previous measures.

The proposals include the importance of developing industrial relations, the economic and social usefulness of research results, the importance of increased involvement in training new researchers, and opportunities for rethinking the research centres established in 2012. This all corresponds with the intent represented by the Ministry for Innovation and Technology with relation to the restructuring of the MTA research institute network.

We would however also like to draw attention to the fact that the contents of the report do not relate to the current reorganisation process, but will play a role during the course of operations within the new structure. The memorandum of understanding signed by the Ministry and the MTA on 7 March remains definitive during the course of the current negotiations. Accordingly, the research institute network will remain a single entity during the development of its new structure, and the new Governing Board will decide on possible internal structural changes. As a result, it will also be the new Governing Board that has the right to make official statements on the contents and  implementation of the newly prepared report.

(Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister/MTI)