Following a call for tender, announced by Hungary’s National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFIH) in 2021, a three-member consortium led by the Hungarian office of EIT Digital won a maximum grant of HUF 130 million (€ 320,000) to support Hungarian participation in Hungarian KIC associations.
The two other partners of the collaboration are the Eötvös Loránd University of Science (ELTE) and the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME). Both institutions have developed and implemented numerous innovation and educational programs within the framework of EIT Digital over the past ten years. Based on the results and experiences achieved in the past decade, the consortium is well prepared to fulfil the tasks outlined in the call for tenders.
The venue for the 3-year program, which runs until the summer of 2024, is the Co-Location Center in the Infopark, home to EIT Digital's Budapest office. The office building is located in the education and innovation center of Budapest, just a few steps from the campuses of the other two partners, as well as from the locations of countless leading industrial players.
This location makes it possible to achieve one of the main objectives of the NKFIH application, namely to strengthen domestic participation in the activities of EIT Digital, to expand the ecosystem with additional Hungarian partners, and to support educational, innovation and business development activities.
The educational component of the winning application provides business, market, financial and management knowledge at the master's and doctoral level, so that the students can prepare to bring their research and business ideas to the market and implement them within a start-up framework.
The innovation activity supports bringing existing research results and technology solutions to the market, as well as providing professional preparation for the startups created during the projects.
The business development component helps entrepreneurial teams to create new start-ups and new products within the framework of agile innovation activities.
In addition to the above, the consortium involves businesses of various maturity levels in idea and team development workshops and hackathons, in networking events that facilitate market and investor access, and in mentoring processes aimed at complex business or idea development.
Press release in Hungarian
