The president of the Faculty of Medical and Biological Sciences resigned immediately as a result of what happened.

The president of one of the faculties of the National Programs for the Financing of Scientific Research (OTKA) announced his resignation over the weekend after it turned out that the Ministry of Innovation and Technology (ITM) had rewritten the proposal of the professional jury on research applications worthy of support. 24.hu. According to the newspaper

there has been no example of such an intervention in the 35-year history of OTKA.

Academician László Acsády, president of OTKA’s Faculty of Medical and Biological Sciences, wrote in an internal letter sent to his colleagues: “with effect from seven years, I will resign.”

The portal writes that OTKA is the main – almost the only – source of funding for Hungarian basic research projects, operating under the National Office for Research, Development and Innovation and the Ministry of Innovation and Technology managed by László Palkovics. According to official information, the ministry published the results in three categories of researchers, so that more than 320 researchers and research groups received almost 11 billion HUF in support for basic research applications.

However, the change in the list of decisions caused a shock in the Faculty of Medical and Biological Sciences, especially since, according to the portal, these are significant differences with the order accepted by the profession. With the Ministry’s decision, the winners also included “underlined applicants”,

who was before him in the last place in the ranking of that jury.

“ITM has crossed a hitherto unbreakable scientific ethical boundary, violating the principle that research grants can only be obtained on a strictly professional basis, in fair competition,” he said. 24.huAndrás Váradi, doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, member of the jury of molecular and structural biology and biochemistry, who will transfer his fees to non-governmental organizations in protest, if the ministry does not clarify what happened.

The portal searched the innovation portfolio for the matter, but has yet to receive a response.


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