Five key themes of strategic importance have been identified to advance ELKH’s mission and support the achievement of its goals. The themes correspond to the major research directions of the ELKH research sites and are in line with the priority areas of the EU’s Horizon Europe research and innovation program.
In the field of natural sciences, ELKH’s goals include supporting high-level exploratory and objective-oriented basic research and strengthening their international embeddedness; strengthening the R&D position in areas of national importance; and facilitating activities focused on invention and innovation. The research network traditionally excels in the field of mathematics and its applications, such as computer science, IT and automatization; and also in the field of physics and chemistry and their applications, including material science, earth science and nuclear energy.
The ELKH research network aims to produce scientifically founded results addressing social and environmental challenges that may be utilized by society and the economy. Our life science strategy is in line with the strengths of our institutes and the priorities of the European Commission (EC), and takes the EC’s 2020 work plan into consideration with special emphasis on the tasks included in the European Green Deal. Moreover, ELKH is focused on supporting the special needs of society and the economy from the perspective of science.
In the field of life sciences, outstanding knowledge and infrastructure comparable and complementary to that of Hungarian universities is concentrated in the ELKH research network. ELKH’s purpose is to harness this capacity to support the health care and pharmaceutical industry, as well as the higher education of experts in this area. Furthermore, while recognizing the priority of basic research, it also aims to facilitate the economic exploitation of Hungarian and international scientific results.
A crucial question for the near future is whether Hungary is able to catch up to the leading countries in the global economy. This goal can only be reached by economic systems that are able to produce innovative value-added and complex products and services, and through inclusive societies that are able to mitigate the differences in incomes and opportunities and enhance social cohesion. The task of the institutes belonging to the ELKH research network is to explore the internal coherence between economic and social processes, and to make successful and adaptable expert proposals based on these results, as well as to assess the effects of decisions taken by policy makers.
By performing research in various fields of the humanities, researchers can serve a public purpose in addition to obtaining information they are interested in for their own research, including supporting members of society in enhancing their self-awareness and general knowledge.