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A new talent management program “Élvonal” (“Forefront”) is to be launched under the leadership of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Ferenc Krausz, announced Balázs Hankó, Minister of Culture and Innovation, on Thursday.
The government wants to attract excellent researchers from abroad to Hungary and to provide talent management, the minister stressed at the press conference. With the program, “we are both building up the golden team of Hungarian science and laying the foundations for its supply,” he added.
He said that it will be implemented in cooperation with universities and the Hungarian Research Network (HUN-REN), and the Élvonal Foundation for Excellence and Talent Development will be established within the framework of the program.
This is needed to make Hungary one of the ten most innovative countries in Europe by 2030,” Balázs Hankó noted, adding that it also means innovation and “deep technology sector renewal.”
L-R: Ferenc Krausz and Balázs Hankó at the press conference. Photo: MTI/Lakatos Péter
Ferenc Krausz stressed that the program’s fundamental aim is to create a world-class research environment in Hungary, serving the world-renowned Hungarian researchers of today and tomorrow.
The Nobel Prize-winning physicist said:
Hungary’s competitiveness in the long term will be fundamentally influenced by whether we succeed in shifting the structure of the economy towards higher value-added activities.”
He pointed out that cutting-edge research capable of generating ground-breaking discoveries would play a key role in this, which could significantly increase the number of globally competitive, innovative Hungarian companies in emerging technology and industrial fields.
Krausz added that although Hungarian universities and research institutions already provide a good basis for development, such a structural transformation requires more than that:
We need to increase the number of our internationally-qualified professionals by orders of magnitude to be able to make a significant impact on this necessary restructuring.”
These professionals are among the most talented young people, for whom internationally renowned scientists and innovators are the biggest attraction, he noted. This recognition is the basis of the new program, which can encourage internationally prominent scientists and innovators to seek and find a suitable location and environment for their research teams in Hungary, in the existing infrastructure, universities, and research institutes.
Photo: MTI/Lakatos Péter
The foundation also aims to support the transfer of research results into practice, he added. According to Krausz, the resulting “Élvonal” knowledge centers will be a magnet for the brightest young Hungarian and foreign researchers.
The knowledge centers will be headed by world-class universities and research institutions, who will embed the future knowledge centers “in a network of centers of excellence spanning continents.
“This embedding will provide a unique opportunity to develop talent selected by secondary school talent programs through the creation of a Élvonal Mentoring Network,” he added.
Construction of the foundation’s headquarters is scheduled to begin this autumn in Budapest, next to the Center for Molecular Fingerprinting (CMF).
Via MTI, Featured image: MTI/Lakatos Péter