More than 330 researchers and research groups won a total of HUF 12 billion for the next 3 or 4 years in the basic research tenders announced by the National Office for Research, Development and Innovation. The so-called OTKA-type programs, which target individual researchers and research groups, support the professional development, achievements and international recognition of the best researchers in Hungarian science in three application categories by funding a variety of researcher-initiated projects.
1338 valid applications were received with a grant request of HUF 46.6 billion. This year, a total of HUF 5.7 billion was available to applicants at the beginning of their research careers who have obtained a scientific degree for up to 12 years in the categories of the Postdoctoral Excellence Program and the Young Researcher Excellence Program, of which 180 projects received support. In the Research Theme Call sub-program, more experienced researchers and the research groups led by them could apply for support to continue their successful basic research topic or to develop new, promising topics. 157 projects can be launched in this category, with a total of HUF 6.3 billion in support. The OTKA program also includes grants for projects implemented in international – bilateral Hungarian-Austrian and Hungarian-Slovenian – research collaborations, but the announcement of their results is expected only after the decision of the co-financing foreign partner institution. This will support the Hungarian research community with an additional HUF 900 million in the near future.
van. While in 2019 it will support about 9.5 billion, this year almost 12 billion forints in research topic applications and the excellence of postdoctoral researchers and young researchers. The desire of researchers to apply has been growing steadily for years, this year the number of over-applications for OTKA programs has almost quadrupled. Within this, the younger generations representing the supply of researchers are also becoming more active, the number of postdoctoral and young researcher applications has increased by 50% compared to 2018. 39% of the winners are under the age of 40, including the youngest at the age of 29.
Applications have traditionally been evaluated in a multi-level process involving individual judges and panels of experts. The scientific significance, novelty, expected results of the submitted project, scientific and social utilization of the results, as well as the previous research performance, the scientific results measured by the number and citations of the publications also played a major role in the evaluation. The judging work was also supported by the scientific metrics system used for the first time on an experimental basis last year, which gives an objective picture of the publication performance of each applicant based on the publication databases, especially the Hungarian Scientific Works Library, taking into account the age and field of science of the researcher. )
Winning projects starting between 1 September and 1 December 2021 can be implemented through simplified administration and more flexible cost accounting, in order to allow researchers to focus primarily on research results and to use their resources as efficiently as possible. In return, supported projects should place a strong emphasis on publication performance and visibility of the results achieved with the support, ensuring open, free access in accordance with international standards of “open access”
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