NATIONAL RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT, AND INNOVATION

SCIENCE IS UNIVERSAL: HUNGARY AIMS TO PROMOTE ‘BRAIN CIRCULATION’ AT ITS RESEARCH SITES

The National Research, Development, and Innovation Office (NKFIH) is launching a website to promote Hungary’s research infrastructure. The Budapest Business Journal asked Dr. István Szabó, Vice President for Science and International Affairs at NKFIH, the rationale behind the website, its target audience, and the results hoped for from it.

By BBJ Staff

BBJ: The NKFIH will soon launch a webpage on research infrastructure. Why is this necessary, and what audiences will the website target? István Szabó: Research infrastructure and its scientific output have always played a critical role in any country’s research-developmentinnovation (RDI) performance. There have been a significant number of top-class research infrastructures in operation for many years (some even for decades) in Hungary, often working in what we may call “scientific isolation” or the “ivory tower of science.”

Today, more than ever before, our world and societies need complex solutions to complex problems. Now researchers and research infrastructures are seeking cooperation opportunities to deal more efficiently with the challenges we are all facing today. The various scientific domains, physical sciences, health sciences, social sciences, and so on, need to work together to find complex solutions to complex problems. Now, effective cooperation doesn’t happen locally, and here I need to emphasize how fundamentally international science is. To show researchers in other countries the scientific assets, know-how, and experience Hungary possesses, to show them research projects they could contribute to, we need to put Hungary’s top research infrastructure on the map of the world. We need to make our best scientific assets clearly visible and accessible.

We began working on this in late 2020, when we compiled the most up-to-date research infrastructure-specific publication, showcasing around 28 top-of-the-line research infrastructure establishments in Hungary. A year later, in December 2021, we edited an even more comprehensive publication, and as a newly introduced tradition, “Excellent” and “Emerging” Research Infrastructure certificates were awarded to nearly 60 infrastructures and clusters. The next step in this process was creating this new website, researchinfrastructures.hu. We think the site has a clean but visually attractive look and its menu makes searching and interaction with research infrastructures effortless. The primary audience of the new website will be the community of international researchers; hence at this time researchinfrastructures.hu is available only in English. To reach our desired audiences, we’ll promote researchinfrastructures.hu on various online channels throughout 2023.

BBJ: Tell us more about the “Excellent” and “Emerging” Research Infrastructure titles you mentioned. ISz: Between late 2020 and the spring of 2021, we conducted a nationwide survey to evaluate the preparedness and international embeddedness of Hungary’s research infrastructure portfolio. Following the survey and the evaluation process, the National Research Infrastructure Committee decided to introduce the “Excellent” and “Emerging” research infrastructure titles as a sign of recognition toward those concerned. A total of nearly 60 such titles and certificates were awarded to top infrastructures and newly developing infrastructures and clusters. We also introduced a “seal of excellence” as the visual representation of research excellence demonstrated by the selected institutions and research facilities. We’re hoping this concept can be further developed into a fully-fledged scientific brand.

BBJ: Why is cooperation important between research, development and innovation? ISz: No one would question that scientific research is indispensable to finding knowledge-based solutions to grand societal challenges of macro-regional and even global relevance. We must emphasize that the relationship between research and innovation shows a diverse landscape and is mostly a very complex phenomenon; a “one size fits all” model simply doesn’t exist. The time between a breakthrough in basic research and an application at an industrial scale varies and is difficult to predict. Efforts must, nevertheless, be made to shorten the gap between scientific advances and their application.

Research infrastructures (RIs) constitute a fundamental pillar of research and innovation, providing researchers, innovators, and other stakeholders with unique knowledge and expertise, experimental devices and technical resources. To develop state-of-the-art technologies, potentially feeding into innovations, it is vital to perform cutting-edge fundamental- and applied research. RIs act as an amplifier in research, development and innovation, contributing to regional development through offering highly skilled jobs and stimulating the growth