Hungarian researchers protest

BUDAPEST—The trade union that represents Hungarian science employees has launched a campaign to protest against budgetary belt tightening that the government has imposed in recent months. Hungary, which joined the European Union earlier this year, currently spends 1.01% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on research and development—substantially below the 1.9% average among Western European EU members. Since 2002, the Hungarian government has repeately pledged to double research funding, but austerity measures introduced this April in an attempt to trim the state budget deficit have curtailed science spending even further. In response, science employees are organizing a mass mail campaign protesting the cuts, the Trade Union of Science and Innovation Employees (Tudosz) announced last Tuesday (May 18). "The most noble idea about the importance of science is fouled by the Finance Ministry's justification, which humiliates researchers by saying funding was cut in order to finance causes 'more important for society,'" according to a petition that Tudosz members are to mail to Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy. "We request that you initiate the restoration of science budgets and withdraw the financial measures that contradict the government program." Under the recent cutbacks, the HUF $37 billion (USD $176 million) budget of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) has been slashed by HUF $2.9 billion (USD $13.8 million). The government originally threatened to cut 31% from the HUF $6.8 billion (USD $33 million) budget of the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA), the basic research funding distributor, but in the wake of negative publicity, the cut was reduced to 18.7%. As a result, OTKA has to trim ongoing contracts by 14% and award fewer new contracts. The measures affect about 5000 researchers, according to OTKA President Gabor Makara. Makara said he supports the campaign organized by Tudosz. "I have a positive opinion of this initiative, since in a democracy, everyone should speak their minds," Makara told The Scientist. "If I were not the president of OTKA, I would also sign such a petition." Tudosz also protests new regulations that impose value-added tax on imported research equipment, which was previously duty free. At the World Science Forum, held in Budapest in November 2003, Prime Minister Medgyessy promised that by 2006, Hungary would spend about 1.9% of its GDP on research and development. This means that the government would have to hike spending by 0.5% of GDP both in 2004 and 2005. "If the government is able to keep this pace, a boom is possible," MTA Chairman Szilveszter E. Vizi said in a radio interview recently. "But the current austerity measures question that, since they mean a big step backwards." In the long term, an even more substantial increase in spending is imperative, Makara added. "1.9% is merely the EU average, so if we don't want to lag behind, by 2010, spending should reach at least 3% of the GDP," he said. "If we want to maintain the current standard of Hungarian science, OTKA's budget should be the double of last year's sum by that time." An additional problem is that more than two thirds of Hungary's research funding comes by the government, and only one third from private sources. In Western Europe, these proportions are the reverse, Vizi said. And inadequate funding is not the only hurdle Hungarian research is facing. A shortage of researchers and the increasing brain drain to western countries is also becoming a problem, according to Vizi. While in Western Europe, the average number of researchers is 5.3 for every 1000 citizens, in Hungary, this figure is less than 1. About 60% of the researchers working in Hungarian academic institutions are aged below 35, and many of them are ready to seek better-paying jobs and more favorable research conditions abroad.

Hungarian researchers protest

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