2023-06-03 19:28:26
Hungarian science and Hungarian innovation are the key to Hungary’s “potential for the future”, declared the Secretary of State responsible for innovation and higher education of the Ministry of Culture and Innovation on Saturday, at the festive Senate meeting of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME).
Balázs Hankó emphasized that the “future potential” of the nation depends on the universities, on what kind of young people and researchers they will be in the future.
Hungarian universities have been renovated in recent years in order to achieve the designated goals, and thanks to this, a more autonomous, competitive and flexible university system has emerged in Hungary, said the state secretary.
He said that the funding was doubled, the number of scientific publications in the best international journals increased by 26 percent last year, and 11 Hungarian universities are in the top five percent of the world.
This year, the number of successful applicants for higher education increased by more than 27 percent, and the number of applicants for technical, natural science, engineering and IT fields increased by 34 percent, said Balázs Hankó.
He said that in consultation with the scientific community, the János Neumann Program will be launched this year, the aim of which is to pay tribute to János Neumann by “increasing the added value of Hungary with Hungarian innovation”.
“We have set ourselves no less a goal than to make Hungary one of the top ten innovators in Europe and among the top 25 innovators in the world by 2030,” said Balázs Hankó.
He said that progress must be made in three areas: more researchers and developers are needed, the innovation potential of businesses must be increased, and the number of patents must also be increased, and the János Neumann Program recommends nine measures for all of these.
At the meeting, Katalin Karikó, a research biologist, was presented with the János Neumann Professorship, an award created jointly by the BME and the János Neumann Society for Computer Science.
As mentioned, Katalin Karikó founded the medical technology of synthetic mRNA-based vaccines with her discovery. In 2020, based on her patent, the world’s first clinically proven third-generation Pfizer-Biontech Covid-19 vaccine was completed.
“We feel that Katalin Karikó’s work is worthy of the legacy of János Neumann, like the computer built on the basis of Neumann’s ideas, the mRNA-Covid vaccine also affects the lives of all humanity,” said rector Tibor Czigány.
After receiving the certificate and plaque confirming the recognition, Katalin Karikó shared her good advice with the doctoral candidates. He said that they should choose a job that they are happy to do, and he said: “actually, money does not make you happy, creating, helping others, healing, learning, teaching are all noble tasks, they give you joy”.
Miklós Bendzsel, president of the Hungarian Academy of Engineering, received the Honorary Citizen of the University award at the ceremonial meeting.
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