Another door closed for Hungarian researchers, with losses potentially amounting to hundreds of millions of forints

In December 2022, the European Commission suspended the signing of new contracts with Hungarian universities maintained by public interest trust funds for the most significant contributions from Horizon Europe, the most important European research funding programme. The Erasmus program, which finances students' studies abroad, has also fallen victim to this. The EU's objections mainly concern the lack of transparency and accountability.

To this day, the Hungarian government has failed to introduce regulations that would allow the country’s higher education institutions to access these vitally important funds. When it comes to Horizon projects, it is perhaps not the availability of funds that is most important: these projects ensure that institutions become and remain part of the European research ecosystem. Not only has this made accessing resources more difficult, but fresh knowledge as well. Thus at this point, even candidate countries such as Moldova and Serbia, or universities in Tunisia and South Korea, which are associated with the program, have access to more knowledge and resources than most Hungarian universities.

Demoted Hungarians

Some opportunities for scientific cooperation remained, but on a smaller scale: in the past few years, 43 Hungarian higher education projects have received nearly HUF 1.8 billion in funding under the EU partnership program Driving Urban Transitions to a Sustainable Future (DUT).

But a huge problem arose. Hungary did not pay out the funding it had committed to, and as the National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFIH), which is responsible for domestic financing, did not comply with the rules of the agreement, Hungarian applicants found themselves at a serious disadvantage, even if they were not excluded from the tenders.

This partnership agreement is a complex EU funding system. Essentially, the organization leading the researchers from three to five countries signs a contract with the EU organization for half of the funding amount, which they then pass on to the members of the consortium.

The other half of the funding must be paid by each country's agency for funding science, which, in the case of Hungary, is the NKFIH. This is not optional; if a project is approved during the EU decision-making process, the countries concerned are obliged to pay.

Hungary was de-listed because it had not paid these funds for a year and a half. The NKFIH did not give a specific answer to our question about the total amount of missed payments, only stating that “Hungarian applicants who were successful in previous DUT calls will receive the funding they are entitled to without exception: some of the payments have already been made, while others are being prepared.”

So no explanation was given for the delay of more than a year and a half, nor for why preparations are still necessary. Despite this, a call for proposals was issued again this year, but Hungarian researchers can no longer participate as full partners, only on a self-funded basis.

According to the announcement, these costs will be covered by the NKFIH, but Hungarian organizations cannot be project coordinators, and Hungarians cannot be eligible for meeting the criteria relating to the international nature of the applicant consortiums. In other words,

Hungarians have become "also-rans"

and the organizer has advised those affected to either replace the Hungarian participants or reclassify them to a status appropriate to the new situation.

It is not about a lack of money

Hungary joined this program in 2022, but it has failed to deliver on its commitment to provide several hundred million forints in funding each year, even though Hungarian universities have won significant funding.

The NKFIH website does not list the winners, and despite our request to the agency to share this information with us, it has not responded to this part of our inquiry.

• In 2022, 17 projects received a total of HUF 676 million in funding;
• In 2023, 15 projects received HUF 661 million altogether;
• In 2024, 11 projects received a total of HUF 441 million.

What is puzzling about the delay in payments is that, according to the NKFIH's 2025 budget, it has 68.9 billion forints to distribute. A few hundred million forints is not a significant figure within this budget, but if there were no funds available, withdrawing from the international support agreement would always be an option.

However, according to our sources, the problem was not a lack of money, but a lack of administrative structure. The disbursement of the available funds did not happen, and there was no communication with the management of DUT.

Despite the downgrade, the NKFIH believes that there was nothing wrong. There is no indication in their response that they have made any mistakes; they only emphasized their positive role. According to this, the NKFIH is using all the means at its disposal to help Hungarian applicants who have been forced into a difficult situation and into the status of cooperating partners (self-financing) due to the DUT's decision in mid-October to implement their projects.

"The change in status, which does not involve exclusion from consortia or joint research, has no impact on participants in terms of funding: as before, their grants will continue to be provided by the NKFIH. This opportunity remains open to applicants," wrote the NKFIH.

Their response did not address the reason why the payment of approved grants has been suspended for the past year and a half. Nor did it mention that from now on, Hungarian universities will only be able to participate in projects as external partners rather than co-researchers, which means that they will have far fewer opportunities; for example, as already mentioned, they will no longer be able to lead consortia.

Additionally, there is a growing mistrust towards Hungarian researchers, partly due to the political influence on the country's research network and universities, and partly due to the risky legal background. Although the DUT downgrade only affects the professionals working in the fields of transport and urban planning, even in their case it is another step towards the erosion of trust and international isolation.