Funding for Hungarian R&D climbs 15.5% in 2013

The Hungarian Central Statistical Office published an annual report on research and development (R&D) in Hungary through 2013, finding that funding for research projects was up by 15.5 percent over 2012.
The number of research projects nationwide came to 1.63 percent of overall national economic investment and now make up 1.44 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP).
In all there were 3,159 research sites nationwide, a 2.2 percent - or 69 sites -increase compared to one year earlier. Fully 1,712 of them belonged to businesses while 1,317 were connected to universities. Only 130 were attached to the central government and these latter include the facilities attached to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
While the number of research facilities run by businesses has been growing steadily, university and central government sites have been declining. One reason for the drop in central government facilities connected to reorganizations within the Academy of Sciences, which has led to mergers of research facilities and personnel cuts.
The number of people working in research came to 58,200, up by 3.1 percent on 2012, and 38,200 of them were employed full time. The number of scientists came to 25,000, a 5 percent increase over 2012, but with the number of support staff increasing even more, the ratio of scientists to other staff was down. Within that, the private sector saw a 10.8 percent increase in employment.
As far as educational levels were concerned, 76.9 percent of employees had college or university degrees and 24.7 percent had PhDs.
All indices suggest that R&D activity has been on the rise although specifically university-based research has gone down, the statistical office report states. Businesses, it stated, cover 46.8 percent of R&D financing. In all areas, the size of the research facilities has increased. While in 2003, the average number of employees per facility was 9, the current statistics show 12.1 workers per facility.
The top single research subject has been technology related, making up 34.5 percent of overall topics. This was followed by the natural sciences with about 25 percent. Agriculture, the humanities, and medicine each accounted for about 10 percent. While the bulk of technological and natural research was in the private sector, most of the work in the humanities and medicine was university-based.
Geographically, central Hungary has more than half of the facilities, and 85 percent of them are located in Budapest. The regions around the southern cities of Pecs and Szeged have about 13 percent of the research centers, and the rest of the country shares less than 10 percent.