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Focus on Hungary

Facts and figures, life scientists in Hungary, EMBO opportunities

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Vid Nukala
  • Senior Community Engagement Officer
  • +49 6221 8891 563
Tilmann Kiessling
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Hungary has been an EMBC Member State since 1992.

Facts and figures

The first university in Hungary was established in 1367 in Pécs, and the oldest continuously operating higher education institution is the University of Debrecen dating from 15381. There are now 64 higher education institutions in the country. The capital Budapest attracts half of Hungary’s 289,000 enrolled students and is home to the Eötvös Loránd University – the country’s largest.2

Around 32% of young adults in Hungary attain a tertiary education.3 In 2021, more than 61,000 people in Hungary were employed in R&D work. 4

There are specialized research institutions, such as the network of National Laboratories5 and the Hungarian Research Network6, and the Research, Development and Innovation Strategy of Hungary (2021-2030)7 sets three overarching objectives for domestic innovation policy including better use of research from public research and higher education institutions, improving the innovation performance of domestic SMEs, and strengthening cooperation between the R&D and innovation systems.

The European Patent Office granted 102 patents with first patentees residing in Hungary in 20228, and the Hungarian Intellectual Property Office granted 1,184 patents for inventions in the country in 2022.9

Research and development in Hungary has benefited from a significant increase in investment over the past decade.  Gross expenditure on research and development (GERD) increased by more than 20% from 2015 to 2021, to 1.64%.10 The main sectors financing GERD were business enterprise providing 50.6%, and the national government (35%).11  Total R%D spending rose 150% between 2012 and 2021 to reach 907 billion Forint.12

Life scientists in Hungary have access to a variety of funding calls through the National Research, Development and Innovation Office13, the HUN-REN Welcome Home and Foreign Researcher Recruitment Programme14 and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.15 They also receive funding through Horizon Europe projects, European Research Council grants, and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions16 as well as EMBO17.

Population: 9,599,74418
R&D spending: 1.64% of GDP16
People employed in R&D: 61,000
Foreign researchers: 11.0%19
Universities: eight public universities, one private6
Patents (European Patent Office): 102
Higher education Institutions: 64
Higher education enrolment: 289,000 students enrolled
Horizon 2020 funding20:
– 1,570 organizations including 437 SMEs involved in H2020 projects
– 33 ERC principal investigators
– 181 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions funded researchers

Life scientists in Hungary are eligible for all of the EMBO Programmes. Find out about all EMBO funding schemes here.

Click to expand

All information as of February 2024.

References

  1. University of Debrecen
  2. Tempus Public Foundation, Hungarian higher education
  3. Eurostat, Population by educational attainment level, sex and age
  4. OECD, R&D personnel by sector and function
  5. National Research, Development and Innovation Office
  6. Hungarian Research Network
  7. National Research, Development and Innovation Office
  8. European Patent Office, Patent Index 2022
  9. Hungarian Intellectual Property Office, 2022 annual report
  10. OECD, Main Science and Technology Indicators
  11. European Commission, Intramural R&D expenditure (GERD) by source of funds
  12. OECD, Gross domestic expenditure on R&D by sector of performance and type of R&D
  13. National Research, Development and Innovation Office
  14. HUN-REN
  15. Hungarian Academy of Sciences
  16. European Commission
  17. EMBO Facts and Figures
  18. Hungarian Central Statistical Office, main indicators of population and vital events
  19. European Commission, 2022 Science, Research and Innovation performance of the EU, figure 6-2-2
  20. European Commission, Horizon 2020 country profile

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