According to the president of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hu-rizont is good for mitigating damage

The Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) welcomes all steps that attempt to mitigate the damage caused by the paradigm-shifting exclusion of Hungarian universities from the EU's Horizon research programme, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) said. Popular word Tamás Freund, President of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, about the new research programme, adding that political obstacles must be removed for all Hungarian research sites to become full, equal and non-discriminatory participants in European research.

Balázs Hankó, State Secretary responsible for higher education, announced last week that the government is launching a program to promote international cooperation in Hungarian research called HU-rizont. Eight billion forints are available for the program this year. The announcement confirms news from early January, he said Negotiations between the Hungarian government and the European Commission regarding the future of the Erasmus and Horizon Europe programs have stalled. In January last year, the body announced that it would exclude Hungarian universities converting to the foundation model from the two programs due to conflict of interest issues.

Although the exclusion mainly only affects universities that change the model, it actually harms the entire Hungarian higher education, research and thus innovation, Freund said. According to him, the HU-rizont program is necessary to mitigate the damage, however It is in the fundamental interest of the country and of Hungarian research that universities can once again participate in the EU Horizon programme.Hanko also announced that 6 billion HUF will be allocated to fund research costs for foreign universities working alongside Hungarian universities. In this regard, the President of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences said that he welcomes the government's allocation of significant resources to higher education and research, but at the same time recommends that this be continued even after the reopening of European Union funds.