The European Innovation Scoreboard compiled by the European Commission helps assess the research & development and innovation (RDI) systems of the European Union’s 28 member states in international comparison. According to the latest report, Hungary is showing a stagnating innovation performance and has fallen back to 23rd place. The existing RDI system is therefore not capable of creating the social and economic profit required to increase Hungary’s competitiveness; it is time for change, and the institutional system and its financing must both be reinforced.

Similarly to the other countries of the Visegrád Group, Hungary continues to be included in the rankings as one of the EU’s fourteen “moderate innovators”. Progress requires more research and more Hungarian patents and inventions that could strengthen the Hungarian economy. The research capacities of research institutes and higher education institutions are fragmented and not sufficiently concentrated, and research results are not being utilised effectively. Increasing the innovation capacity and efficiency of Hungarian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is one of the greatest economic policy challenges.

The modernisation of innovation policy is vital: new kinds of measures are required that can address the weaknesses of the Hungarian RDI system. Hungarian enterprises must be provided with support to enable them to perform high added value, knowledge-based activities; the opportunity must be created for research institutes and higher education institutions to not operate in an isolated manner, but to develop mutually advantageous cooperation with the most varied participants of business and social life. As the first step in this process of renewal, and as a catalyst of the process, the Ministry for Innovation and Technology was created.

The Government would like more funding to result in more research, and accordingly in the interests of achieving change, from 2020 it will be increasing the state resources available for RDI by an additional 32 billion forints (EUR 99.2 million). The Innovation Ministry has introduced a host of measures aimed at achieving a more successful RDI system, including amongst others the establishment of the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund, which creates the uniform financing of basic and applied research and innovation, the reorganisation of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office and the National Office of Intellectual Property to operate as agencies, and the drawing up of the National RDI Strategy for 2020-2030, which places competitiveness and performance at the forefront. The proposals debated by the National Assembly also serve the reform of the institutional system and financing based on international models, for instance with relation to the setting up of a National Science Policy Council, which would serve as an advisory body to the Cabinet, and the establishment of the Loránd Eötvös Research Institute Network.

Hungarian innovation policy must resolve three main challenges in the upcoming period: it must achieve an increase in the practical application of the research results of state-financed research centres, an improvement in the low innovation performance of Hungarian enterprises and primarily SMEs, and an increase in cooperation between the participants of the RDI system. In the interests of furthering Hungary’s economic growth, the Ministry for Innovation and Technology will continue to strive to develop an innovation ecosystem that improves openness to innovation and its value-creation capability, targets the more efficient use of resources, and furthers technological development.

(Ministry of Innovation and Technology)