Five Researchers, Three Projects: the First Winners of the HUN-REN–MIT Seed Fund in Spotlight

As previously reported, the HUN-REN Hungarian Research Network and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), widely regarded as one of the world's leading universities, signed a strategic cooperation agreement enabling HUN-REN to join the Global Seed Funds (GSF) programme of the MIT Center for International Studies (CIS).

Under the agreement, the two partners established the MIT Hungary HUN-REN Seed Fund, which supports joint research teams led by researchers from HUN-REN and MIT, while creating opportunities for Hungarian researchers and students to participate in collaborative projects. The partnership is highly selective: including Hungary, only ten European countries—and just twenty-three countries worldwide—currently participate in the MIT Global Seed Funds programme.

Portfolio presents the first three funded projects in detail:

• The origins of the "light" heavy elements (HUN-REN Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences), led by Research Professor Maria Lugaro and Senior Research Scientist Marco Pignatari, in collaboration with MIT Division Head for Astrophysics Anna Frebel.
• Autonomous control of advanced nuclear reactors (HUN-REN Centre for Energy Research), led by researchers András Szabolcs Ványi and Zoltán István Böröczki. The MIT partners are Sacit Cetiner, Scientific Director of the MIT Nuclear Reactor Laboratory, and Benoit Forget, Department Head of Nuclear Science and Engineering.
• On timing constraints of XR applications introduced by AI pipelines (HUN-REN–BME Research Group on Cloud Applications), led by Professor László Toka of the Department of Telecommunications and Artificial Intelligence, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics, Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME). The MIT collaborator is Professor Fox Harrell of the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society (IDSS), whose research focuses on digital media and artificial intelligence.

This funding round marks an important milestone for HUN-REN, as it is the first time researchers across the HUN-REN network have been able to participate in a dedicated MIT–HUN-REN programme. Global Seed Funds are designed to support the earliest stages of international research collaborations by financing travel, workshops, researcher exchanges and the development of joint research activities. Rather than seeking established projects, MIT uses this scheme to identify novel, world-class research ideas that are of mutual interest to researchers at both institutions.

The Portfolio article also quotes Roland Jakab, Chief Executive Officer of HUN-REN, who emphasised that the value of the Seed Fund lies in initiating collaborations between research groups whose joint work can develop into larger scientific or technological programmes over the longer term, thereby strengthening the quality and international competitiveness of Hungarian research.

"This can ultimately lead to joint publications, collaborative research proposals and, importantly, make the Hungarian research network more attractive to researchers working abroad, early-career scientists and emerging fields of research," he added.

 Photos: László Mudra/Portfolio