Hungary’s umbrella organisation for state-funded analysis, the Hungarian Analysis Community, has approved the transfer of 4 of its humanities analysis centres to Eötvös Loránd College.
The choice is contested by the tutorial group, with the Hungarian Academy of Sciences issuing a pre-emptive statement opposing the separation of the humanities and social science institutes from the community. The academy operated the institutes till 2019, once they had been taken into authorities management.
Based on Balázs Gulyás, president of the Hungarian Analysis Community, transferring the 4 centres to the college is anticipated to enhance their administration and operations. “Regardless of the high-level work being carried out, collaboration between humanities analysis institutes and different scientific domains inside [the network], significantly within the type of joint initiatives and publications, has remained restricted,” he advised Science|Enterprise.
The workers of the 4 affected centres will proceed their analysis underneath college administration, whereas remaining inside the similar buildings, that are owned by the academy.
For its half, the academy has issued a press release saying that it’s “able to take over the 4 analysis centres,” if requested.
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When contacted by Science|Enterprise, the academy declined to remark additional. In the meantime, the college didn’t reply to requests for additional info.
The unique proposal to switch the institutes got here from Lénárd Darázs, rector of Eötvös Loránd College. It was permitted by the analysis community governing board in a 6–2 vote and kinds a part of a broader technique to revamp the nationwide analysis panorama.
The transformation started final yr when the Nationwide Meeting’s handed a legislation together with to rework the analysis community from a state-budgeted entity to a private-law organisation working exterior the state price range. This course of continues to be underway and is anticipated to be finalised later this yr.
As a part of its ongoing reform, the analysis community can be introducing a performance-based funding mannequin “during which a analysis institute commits to reaching clearly outlined scientific, monetary and operational aims inside a selected interval,” Gulyás defined to Science|Enterprise.
“This method [. . .]permits us to recognise excellent scientific and innovation achievements, motivates establishments and strengthens the transparency and long-term stability of the community,” he mentioned.
The actual-estate query
The long-running standoff between the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Hungarian Analysis Community has deep roots.
In 2019, the federal government launched a significant restructuring of the nation’s public analysis system. Operational management of the academy’s analysis institutes was transferred to a newly established body overseen by the federal government, the Eötvös Loránd Analysis Community, which was renamed the Hungarian Analysis Community in 2023. The transfer provoked important controversy, broadly perceived as a threat to academic autonomy and an enlargement of political oversight.
Though the academy technically retained possession of most buildings housing the analysis institutes, management over their use shifted to the community.
In December 2024, the academy’s common meeting agreed to promote these properties to the federal government for HUF 74.5 billion (€185.8 million). Nevertheless, because the deal remained incomplete, the academy management now desires the settlement to be reassessed.
