Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has announced that the government is planning to allocate 1.2 billion HUF to research, development and innovation up to 2020.
As a result of the investment, Hungary’s research spending as a proportion of GDP will approximate to the EU average.
The prime minister said that Hungary does not have a nuclear arsenal, major oil reserves or a population of a hundred million, but it does have a very special mentality and important scientific traditions.
In today’s world there is cut-throat competition for top scientists, the prime minister pointed out. He said that now not only the West, but also the East there are research conditions in place which are a magnet for talented researchers.
The prime minister added that the grants allocated to research amount to 1.8 per cent of GDP, which approximates to the EU’s 1.9 per cent average.
The prime minister said that before the opening of the meeting at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences he had agreed with László Lovász, president of the Academy, that the government will continue to support the Academy’s research programs in the future.
He welcomed the fact that the Academy is planning to make major progress in the near future in the fields of water science, agricultural innovation and methodology, and warned that in the period ahead climate change will be one of the greatest challenges for the Carpathian Basin.