HKFIH: Supporting Knowledge Creation

SUPPORTING KNOWLEDGE CREATION

In the digital era, the progress of countries depends largely on how efficiently they can bring together research, development and innovation. This may seem an easy task, but many needs and possibilities must be integrated and, not least, motivated. These are the main roles of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFIH). The Budapest Business Journal talked with its president, Zoltán Birkner, about the office’s future plans.

By Kálmán Béres

BBJ: What opportunities does NKFIH have to invigorate Hungarian innovation, especially among young professionals?

Zoltán Birkner: The Hungarian government, the Ministry for Innovation and Technology has supported expanding the creation of knowledge, catalyzed setting up the elements connecting knowledge bases and knowledge users, and also catalyzed a more receptive approach of companies towards innovation. This is how this whole context starts becoming a coherent system. How are we supporting knowledge creation? The government, and the NKFIH, has selected and is providing funds for the education of new scientists, for research and institutional excellence, which will contribute to stabilizing the operation of universities and research facilities. An important practical step was starting the Cooperative PhD Program, which is, on the one hand, an important instrument in preparing new scientists, and on the other hand strengthens cooperation between industries and universities. We had 100 openings for the program, and 536 applications. This is an extraordinary response, given that we announced it after the standard PhD program had been announced, so universities and PhD centers needed to provide new exams for this huge wave of new applicants.

BBJ: What is the role of the universities from the NKFIH perspective?

ZB: One of our main focus points is the Program for Thematic Excellence. Within this, we provide financial support for researches on global challenges conducted by universities and research centers, as well as for research programs based on institutional excellence. We expect the supported institutions to acquire a deep expertise in some areas and to concentrate on these areas with a scientific thoroughness, focusing on the results and usefulness of that specific research.

Minister for Innovation and Technology László Palkovics recently announced a similarly important program on national labs. Altogether there are 18 such labs, aimed at fostering the cooperation of all key Hungarian players of a specific area on a focus issue. A great example is the huge program related to digital transition and on artificial intelligence. Scientists, universities, research facilities and companies that excel in the field of AI joined their efforts to create centers able to achieve significant results and that could also be attractive for large international R&D projects.

An equally important initiative is the development of competence centers. Universities are cooperating with industrial partners to expand together or to make developments in a specific area. We will set up 10 such competence centers countrywide. One exciting example is the center of competence focusing on the transition to a circular economy. Pannon University, together with MOL, Hidrofilt Kft. and some other local companies joined forces to process together the basic research, development and sectoral issues on the circular economy. Obviously, the research is not the most important on its own, yet the practical results and developments it provides and the economic potential it generates are. The competence center model has two main messages: on the one hand, universities and companies must cooperate to achieve success, and on the other, they should be in service of market demands. More specifically, the “output” of this cooperation must always be a new product or service for the market.

If we look at a new product or product group, we can already see the opportunity of sectoral development. We can take advantage of these new areas, via science parks, to generate and prepare new industry sectors. We are planning for the near future nine regional, scientific-innovation-economic hubs aiming at specific areas.

BBJ: How has NKFIH restructures the system for international tenders?

ZB: We are channeling international cooperation, and bilateral scientific and technology relations towards results for the markets; therefore, beside research mobility, we also support international joint projects between universities and industrial players. Our scope here is the same, to have new products or technologies which can be sold easily on several markets. We also aim to be more efficient in winning directly accessible EU funds. Based on our experience with the EU Horizon 2020 (H2020) Research and Innovation Frame Program, we have made new plans so that Hungarian applicants can be more successful in gaining funds within the new, Horizon Europe Frame Program starting 2021. We had 1,381 successful applications in H2020, gathering EUR 346 million. This means that we earned 0.6% of the H2020 funds, which ranks us 17th in the EU. Our aim is to reach 2.18%, based on population proportion, and for that

we have taken very seriously planned steps. First, we have offered incentives to Hungarian researchers, scientific institutions and companies to apply for EU funds. The secondly, we encourage thematic institutions, competence centers and national labs to apply for international projects. The catalyst for companies to cooperate is that they earn additional points in national innovation applications if they apply to international projects. Thirdly, we are aligning our national application systems to EU applications, so that Hungarian scientists and companies can get familiar with EU application procedures.

How are we supporting knowledge creation? The government, and the NKFIH, has selected and is providing funds for the education of new scientists, for research and institutional excellence, which will contribute to stabilizing the operation of universities and research facilities.

Zoltán Birkner

Of course, the question apart from all this is how we can further support potential applicants. Obviously, we need to completely restructure our application system and organizational structure. We will significantly increase the number aiming to apply successfully to the Horizon Europe program who can be supported with information and consultancy, as well as with companies dealing with international relations. We have started several supporting applications, for example one for setting up a consortium for international projects, or in the case of innovative companies, making a competitive business plan. For some special programs, we offer state co-financing through targeted calls for applications. We support applicants with mentor programs or with training and sectoral consultancy for project management and financial reports. In addition, professionals with experience of examining international applications will help improve project drafts. So, we are offering financial support to all initiatives related to international networks and contact building.