The Deputy Prime Minister's speech in the Hungarian parliament on Saturday, the closing day of the World Science Forum.

Ladies and Gentlemen, distinguished Guests,

Allow me to begin by expressing my gratitude for having invited me to this conference whose topics are in many ways strongly related to the policies pursued by the Government of Hungary.

Global challenges are interdependent and interrelated, the dynamics between them are complex and all have relevant aspects for us in Hungary. Efforts are made to tackle the effects of climate change like the unprecedented levels of drought. Water management is becoming a more pressing worldwide issue by the day and Hungary is in a fortunate position to preside over sizeable material and human resources. The search for suitable alternative energy sources is ongoing and we need to remove administrative obstacles in order to speed up this process. Food and energy security, population change, loss of biodiversity, natural disaster mitigation and infectious diseases are all interconnected yet many global assessment and research programmes continue to be managed separately.

I have merely highlighted a number of the mounting issues we are facing and these challenges have received much attention in recent years, and are now a key component of national and multinational science strategies and many funding mechanisms.

Our mutual goal is to foster and to maintain a dialogue between the scientific community, the society and policy-makers. Cooperation between the government, the private sector, the academic world, the industry and the research establishments is of immense importance in light of the challenges we are facing.

Let me draw your kind attention to the general responses to these challenges and to the current global tendencies.

Under the present circumstances, it is necessary to emphasize that public policies strive to improve the well-being of all citizens the same way as the ultimate goal of science policy is to find ways how science and technology can best serve the public interest.  With this in mind, it is the government who must assume a decisive role in this process.
Currently, most research funding comes from two major sources, corporations through their research and development departments and the government, primarily via universities and specialised government agencies. Some small amounts of scientific research are also carried out by charitable foundations.

Government-funded research can either be carried out by the government itself or through grants to academic and other researchers outside the government. An additional advantage to state-sponsored research is that the results are publicly shared, whereas with privately funded research the ideas are controlled by a single group and the research is mainly motivated by profit. Moreover, the transfer of knowledge between public research organisations and third parties, including industry and NGOs, needs to improve. All of the many forms of knowledge-transfer, such as contract research, collaborative and co-operative research, licensing, publications and exchanges of skilled researchers between the public and private sectors, need to be further developed and managed better.

Taking these facts into account, we must underline that the government must provide a competitive public science environment. This requires the state to pursue ambitious modernisation agendas for the public research base and sustain public funding. In this context, it would be a great achievement to find the right balance between the state’s participation and the contribution of the industry. „Cluster policies” serve as a reliable tool to improve the situation. Such policies enhance productivity, attract investment, promote research, strengthen the industrial base and develop specific products or services and become a focus for developing skills.

Yet another crucial issue of this innovation is financing. In this field, it is widely known that innovation has been placed at the heart of the Europe 2020 Strategy for growth and jobs. The proposed Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, which will be introduced after 2013, will build upon the successes of the three current Framework Programmes. According to the strategy, investment in research and innovation in the next seven years will be significantly increased. The common EU strategy "Horizon 2020", worth eighty billion Euros, will boost Europe's global competitiveness and help create the jobs and ideas for tomorrow. The ultimate aim is to maximise the contribution of EU-funded research and innovation to sustainable growth and jobs and to tackling the grand challenges facing Europe.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The role of the state in innovation is at least twofold. First, the state can give financial support to help innovators and facilitate innovation in the economy. Second, the state can provide a supportive legal environment to eliminate barriers to innovation activity. Both of these are means of the government to influence the intensity of innovation in the economy.

According to the “classic” goal set by the EU, the European average rate of research and development expenditures should be increased to three percent of GDP until 2020 from the current level of two percent. The level of research and development expenditures in Hungary has been slightly on the rise since 2004 and it reached one point fifteen percent of GDP in 2009. Hungary intends to achieve an increase in the level of research and development expenditures up to one point eight percent of GDP by 2020 in such a way that the share of corporate R&D spending should rise significantly. As an intermediate target, Hungary aims to achieve an R&D expenditure rate of one point five percent by the middle of the decade. Another objective of the government is that Hungary’s performance with regards the innovation indicator should reach, or even surpass, the EU’s average by the end of the decade.

The government’s measures aimed at reaching the R&D target include the comprehensive revision of R&D and innovation policies and support programmes, the launch of new programmes, the transformation of relevant institutional and management system as well as the improvement of the relevant legal environment.

Allow me to briefly elaborate the most important government measures and systemic changes that will help us reaching our R&D targets. First, the transformation of the institutional framework of science, technology and innovation policy began in the second half of 2010 by the new government’s decision to establish the National Research, Innovation and Science Policy Council and the creation of the unified institutional system of development policy. Thus the efficient management system of a national innovation system has been established for the long term. Science policy is formulated by the Ministry of National Resources; innovation policy is developed by the Ministry of National Economy and implemented by the Ministry of National Development. The coordination of these policies is done by the National Research, Innovation and Science Policy Council.

Second, as part of the transformation of the support system of research, development and innovation (R+D+I), competition administration is being streamlined. In order to enhance the competitiveness of the economy, the support of adaptive innovation and technology transfer will stimulate the so far unexploited R+D+I potentials of the SME sector. Balanced growth will be facilitated by the support of regional R+D+I activities, cooperation and networking.

Third, by the renewal and implementation of the R+D+I Strategy, a regulatory background will be created which will introduce a complex support system that can manage the various forms of support as a whole. In order to better oversee R+D+I processes, a unified monitoring and evaluation system will be operated. As part of the strategy, special attention will be paid to the issue of research infrastructure development which will serve as the basis the Hungarian participation in large international R+D+I projects. The time horizon of the strategy stretches until 2020.

Fourth, the vision of the Academy’s Momentum Programme is to help the best and brightest of our country continue their research in Hungary and support this with the necessary financial tools. We must create an environment that is both inspirational and financially sustainable to keep the Hungarian talent at home.

Fifth, Hungary’s intention is to establish fruitful scientific cooperation and discussion with the rising superpowers of science and technology such as Brazil, China, India, South-Korea and Singapore.

Last but not least, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) is an EU body established in March 2008. The EIT is located in Budapest and its mission is to increase European sustainable growth and competitiveness by reinforcing the innovation capacity and, most importantly, the innovation impact of the EU. To do so, EIT have created integrated Knowledge Innovation Communities. These co-operative communities, along with the overarching EIT activities, will provide the conditions for a new generation of entrepreneurs and innovators to flourish.

Honourable guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

At the end of my speech, please let me conclude by saying something that we Hungarians have always been proud of. We like to think that the EIT was established in Budapest at least partly as an acknowledgement of our great history in inventive research and innovation. Furthermore, Hungary placed knowledge, science and innovation at the heart of the EU presidency in the first half of this year.

All that said we still have a lot of work to do to achieve our targets and develop our innovation performance, not only to accomplish the R&D expenditure goals set by the EU but also to conform to our history in innovation.

Thank you for your kind attention!

(kormany.hu)