An amendment of the 2019 Finance Act transferred the basic funding support of the research institute network of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences to the Ministry for Innovation and Technology. This proved to be the first step of an attempt to restructure scientific research, which led to a gradually deepening conflict between the Ministry and the Academy, the flagship of Hungarian scientific research.
The situation is a grave threat to the future of Hungarian scientific research, therefore the leaders of "Lendület" research groups, based both at research institutes and universities, wrote an open letter to the Prime Minister, which appeared in the press as well.
Further details on the situation are available on the webpage of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Open letter dated 29th May, 2019 to Mr Viktor Orbán, Prime Minister of Hungary and the Government concerning the draft law aiming to restructure the research network of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Open letter dated 7th February, 2019 to Mr Viktor Orbán, Prime Minister of Hungary about our concerns regarding the proposed restructuring of the research network of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Longer essay outlining our position and recommendations.
Lendület'2019 is a diverse and informal group. All of us are awardees of the "Lendület" ("Momentum") excellence grant scheme of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, aimed at founding new and promising research groups at research institutes and universities in Hungary. We are united by science, but do not form a movement and have no formal structure or leadership. The reason we almost simultaneously and without much preceding coordination came to the decision to speak out is that we share a deep concern for our shared values. Our declarations relate our common and agreed standpoint, and the individual researchers express their support with their signatures in each case separately.