The Ministry of Culture and Innovation, the National Research, Development and Innovation Office and the Hungarian Innovation Agency work together as the three most important public catalysts of the Hungarian innovation ecosystem to create a social and economic environment that encourages innovation. Our new joint publication demonstrates the potential of the Hungarian innovation ecosystem, the achievements and ambitious future goals of our key stakeholders in a clear and illustrative way, not only for our current and future partners, but also for the lay public.

Knowledge and creativity are Hungary’s main resources and the engine of its growth. Our scientists prove time and time again that we Hungarians are capable of performing at the top of the world in a way that belies the size and talents of our country. The most recent spectacular proof of this is the two Hungarian scientists, Katalin Karikó and Ferenc Krausz who were awarded Nobel Prizes in 2023; these two recent achievements ranking Hungary 11th in the world in terms of the number of Nobel laureates per million people. Not only our experienced researchers, but also our young talents excel: in the overall ranking of the International Mathematical Olympiad, they stand in 5th place, and in the overall ranking of the International Physics Olympiad they hold 9th place in terms of the absolute number of gold medals.

The key to our competitiveness lies in research and innovation i.e. generating value by drawing on scientific results and innovative ideas, and the key to the successful development of the ecosystem is the combination of knowledge generation, knowledge flow and knowledge exploitation. This cannot be achieved without a dynamic and mutually beneficial cooperation between universities/research institutes and the business sector, with the state providing all possible support. The long-term goal is to develop an ecosystem that is self-sustaining on market terms, but the state still has a key role to play in developing some of the financing and support instruments and the regulatory environment.

By now, the challenges and strategic goals of the domestic RDI ecosystem are clear, and the policy measures of recent years have led to a well-functioning strategic, institutional and funding system designed to achieve these goals. Over the past decade, the government has made significant progress in stimulating research and development and innovation:

• Hungary is the only country in the European Innovation Scoreboard to move up one category to moderate innovator in 2023.
• R&D expenditure has nominally tripled since 2010.
• The number of research and development staff has more than doubled (114%) (the 3rd largest increase in the EU) and the number of PhD students has increased by almost 50% in the last 10 years.
• The number of university patent applications in 2024 was 143, twice as many as in 2022 and nearly seven times as many as in 2018.
• The university model change, the renewal of the Hungarian Research Network, the consolidation of the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund and the reorganisation of the application structure have also contributed to these results.

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