It all began with the draft by the State Secretary for Education of the Ministry of Human Resources in 2014, which aimed to bring university research and development activities closer to the needs of companies. For this purpose, the Center for University-Industry Cooperation (we’re calling it FIEK for short) was developed. In 2017 the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Siemens, Richter Gedeon, Nokia Solutions and Networks, and MVM (Hungarian Electrical), established a consortium to strengthen the relations between the university and the industry. Yes, they are pretty big names, and we will tell you more about them in another post, but there is another small thing worth mentioning: the Centre received a grant of HUF 3,96 billion from The National Research, Development and Innovation Office!
The FIEK project aims to exploit the results of research, development and innovation in cooperation between the Pharmaceutical industry, the energy and ICT fields. It is based on the university’s intellectual resources and laboratory infrastructure. The project is useful to everyone: The researchers are engaging in exciting tasks, firms receive innovative solutions to their problems, students can get an interesting thesis, and teachers can participate in high-quality projects that provide practical Education. We are working in 5 laboratoriums, each dedicated to one field of research. And the best part is? Those research results can be used by the companies participating in the project immediately!
Part of the FIEK infrastructure is the Industry 4.0 Technology Center (TK), which is the gateway to small and medium-sized enterprises ( SMEs), which provides demonstration and development services, a professionally-established industry that generates 4.0 knowledge and presents to SMEs. A venue for thematic meetings and trainings, aimed at developing digitisation capabilities. While the BRIDGE of the university innovation Ecosystem, which is also known as the BME KFI (Research, Development, Innovation) office, will support the building and efficient operation of a result-oriented academic innovation ecosystem.
But inside the FIEK project there is one more interesting entity: the Z10 incubator program, which also has its own scientific podcast, the InnoSapiens. Listen to it if you want to up your Hungarian game! On 17 February, an official opening ceremony was held to launch Z10, the country’s first university-based start-up incubation programme, which was realised in record time. The incubator program is open to anyone, applications are received once a year for a 10 month-long collaboration period. If you’d like to get to know the program, or the already successful startup-alumni, check out this site!
The Higher Education Institutional Excellence Program (FIKP, with an annual funding of HUF 1,4 billion) launched in 2018 targeted the strengthening of BME’s research activities in key areas. The programme, which ended in 2020, will proceed in the framework of the Thematic Excellence Programme (TKP, with a funding of HUF 600 million per year). The programmes are implemented with the support of the Ministry of Innovation and Technology, financed from the National Research, Development, and Innovation Fund.
R&D and innovation does not stop here though. In 2020, BME and the Pro Progressio Foundation announced for the fourth time their awards recognizing scientific publication achievements, encouraging the publication of articles with a significant number of independent citations in Science and Nature journals and the Web of Science.
And finally, some convincing numbers for you:
BME and the Lorand Eötvös Research Network jointly run 9 research groups; and another 11 research groups referred to as MTA-LENDÜLET operate at BME.
Future academics are trained at 12 doctoral schools at BME
BME is involved in 46 projects realised from EU funds under Horizon 2020
BME operates 10 laboratories providing service for 67 R&D projects
416 international publications published, which shows the high standard of BME’s publication activity
The program encouraged industrial cooperation with a funding of HUF 5.2 billion
Following the participation of these programs 39 phD degrees have been obtained in relation to BME’s R&D&I topics
