Changes in the Hungarian National Innovation System (NIS)

Adam Tichy-Racsatichy-racs@omikk.bme.hu

National Technical Information Centre and Libraryat the Budapest university of Technology and

Economics (BME OMIKK)

Events in Hungarian NIS

• Act on Innovation (2004)– Innovation Fund – special tax + matching fund– Establishing National Office for Research and Development (NKTH) under the

supervision of Ministry of Education• Parliamentary elections (2006)

– Change in governmental structure– NKTH is supervised by the Ministry of Economy

• 2nd amendment to Coalition Agreement (2007)– Proposal on integration of „small taxes”– Government Decision No. 1060/2007 on tasks regarding the innovation

infrastructure – „Establishing innovation observatory”• State Auditing Committee report on Fund of Innovation (2008)

– There are too many changes in NIS• Break-up of governing coalition (2008)

– Government without majority support in Parliament– Minister of Research and Technology appointed

• World economic crisis (2008-)– Change of Government (2009)– Minister of Research and Technology resigned

Good News

• The European Institute of Innovation and Technology has been established– EU organization– Centre in Budapest, Hungary

Major events since May 2008

• At the 2008 seminar and the 59th sitting of CPR there was a presentation on the subject, emphasizing the negative effects of the frequent organizational changes in governing R&D policy

• During his visit in November 2008 in Hungary Dr Victor Kodola, director of ICSTI met– Dr Gyula Csopaki, president of the National Office for Research and

Technology Development (appointed into the position in August 2008)– Ildikó Kovács, head of Department of International Cooperation of NKTH– Dr József Pálinkás, president of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences– Dr. Károly Molnár, minister of research and technology (appointed into

his newly established position on 1st May, 2008)• Among other topics that were discussed, they agreed in inviting the

61st Sitting of CPR in Hungary

Economic and structural changes since November

• The first effects of the world economic crisis began in October, we could already make an estimation of it in December and it has became reality by now– Hungary needed a substantial loan from IMF in November in order to

handle the national debt service– The decline of industrial production is about 20 percent– The automotive and the computer industry closed down most of the

Hungarian factories or introduced a four workday in a week system– Most of construction works have been suspended– The expected decrease of GDP from 2008 to 2009 is about 6 percent– The unemployment went up to 11-12 percent– The exchange rate of EUR 1

• HUF 247 in October 2008• HUF 317 in March 2009• HUF 287 in May 2009

• After a short term slight decrease of prices higher inflation rate is forecast by analysts

The effects of the changes regarding to ICSTI

• The situation swept away the government in April, including the minister of R&D – and his office closed down after ten months

• The new government does not have majority inthe Parliament, but needs voting majority for its legislative actions to stabilize the situation

• Regular parliamentary elections will be in May 2010, but there can be elections before that time– Major victory of FIDESZ - in opposition since 2002 - is

expected– A new nationalist party may win some parliamentary

seats– The political strength of parties will be testes on the

elections for European Parliament in two weeks

The effects of the changes regarding to ICSTI

• The supervisor of NKTH is the Ministry of National Development and Economics (new position, new person)

• The incomes of the Fund for Research and Technological Innovation decreases with the decline of the industrial production– that fund provides financial resources for scientific cooperation

• In this situation NKTH, which is responsible for the ICSTI relations– does not take the responsibility of inviting the 61st CPR Sitting to

Hungary in 2010– but will pay membership fees of Hungary and contributes to our

participation at major ICSTI events

• BME OMIKK alone cannot organize next years ICSTI Conference and the 61st CPR sitting on its own budget