MTA and Science

The Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) is the oldest and greatest institution of Hungarian science. Its founder was Count István Széchenyi who on 3 November, 1825, during the Pozsony (Bratislava) National Assembly bestowed a year’s income of his estates towards the formation of a learned society. The formation of a Hungarian Academy – a Hungarian Learned Society at the time – was laid down in Law XI. of 1827. The Main Halls of the MTA, as designed by Prussian architect Friedrich August Schüler, were ceremoniously opened on 11 December, 1865.

The MTA is a public body functioning as a self-regulatory legal entity which carries out a national civic duty by practising, supporting, overseeing and representing science.

Civic duties of the Academy

  • supports the cultivation and research of sciences;
  • when asked by the National Assembly or the Government, in relevant issues i.e. in issues regarding science, education, society, the environment or the economy, it makes its professional views public;
  • helps the development of language and the cultivation of science in Hungarian;
  • preserves the purity of scientific life and the freedom of scientific research and self-expression;
  • keeps up links with scientific research carried out in Hungarian in foreign countries, supports across-the-border science;
  • announces scientific results to the public.

For further detailed information please refer to our brochures available below. (The publications were produced before September 2019.)

General Information

History of the Academy

The Nation as a Scientific Community