Five key themes of strategic importance have been identified to advance HUN-REN’s mission and support the achievement of its goals. These themes correspond to the major research directions of the HUN-REN research sites and align with the priority areas of the EU’s Horizon Europe research and innovation program.
In the field of natural sciences, HUN-REN’s goals include supporting high-level and objective-oriented research, enhancing international embeddedness, strengthening the R&D position in areas of national importance, and facilitating activities focused on invention and innovation. The network traditionally excels in the field of mathematics and its applications, such as computer science, IT and automatization; and also in the field of physics and chemistry and their applications, including material science, earth science and nuclear energy.
HUN-REN aims to produce scientifically founded results that address social and environmental challenges and can be utilized by both society and the economy. Our life science strategy is in line with the strengths of our institutes and the priorities of the European Commission (EC), and takes the EC’s 2020 work plan into consideration with special emphasis on the tasks included in the European Green Deal. Moreover, HUN-REN is focused on supporting the special needs of society and the economy from the perspective of science.
In the field of life sciences, outstanding knowledge and infrastructure are concentrated at the HUN-REN research sites, complementing that of Hungarian universities. The purpose of the research network is to harness this capacity to support the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry, as well as the higher education of experts in this field. It also aims to facilitate the economic exploitation of Hungarian and international scientific results.
A crucial question for the near future is whether Hungary is able to catch up to the leading countries in the global economy. This goal can only be reached by economic systems that are able to produce innovative value-added and complex products and services, and through inclusive societies that are able to mitigate the differences in incomes and opportunities and enhance social cohesion. The task of the institutes belonging to the HUN-REN research network is to explore the internal coherence between economic and social processes, make successful and adaptable expert proposals based on these results, and assess the effects of decisions taken by policy makers.
By performing research in various fields of the humanities, researchers can serve a public purpose in addition to obtaining information they are interested in for their own research, including supporting members of society in enhancing their self-awareness and general knowledge.