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Significant additional funds for ELKH – a historic opportunity for Hungarian science

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László Palkovics, Minister for Innovation and Technology, and Miklós Maróth, President of the Eötvös Loránd Research Network, held a joint press conference, where they announced significant additional funding for the development of ELKH. The additional resources include: a one-time sum of HUF 11 billion in the second half of this year; an additional HUF 22 billion per year from 2021 onwards to be incorporated in the annual budget; and a total of HUF 36.5 billion for infrastructure investments.

The task and objective of the Eötvös Loránd Research Network is to ensure more transparent, efficient and effective operation of the state-funded network of research institutes, while strengthening the freedom of research and keeping in mind criteria for excellence. Complementing the total of HUF 22 billion per year currently available to finance the research network with an another HUF 22 billion per year from 2021, as well as the additional HUF 36.5 billion for infrastructure development, provides a good basis for the development of the network to increase its efficiency and effectiveness.

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The improvements will serve three important purposes. The first is to develop a career model for researchers based on excellence, which, in addition to increasing salaries of researchers, helps retain and attract talented individuals and supports the supply of young researchers. The second is the introduction of a new internal funding model based on three pillars, in which resources allocated to research activities, public research services and operations will be allocated on the basis of tasks and performance agreed with the heads of institutions, replacing the current static system of allocation according to defined bases. The third element is to broaden and reinforce cooperation with domestic and international academic and industrial partners, which will increase the involvement of external sources in research funding and support more effective social and economic utilization of the resulting intellectual property.