A message of season's greetings from Professor László Lovász, Academic Director of the AE Budapest Hub

Dear Fellow AE Members,
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Dear Guest Readers,

With the end of the year fast approaching, it is now time to take stock of what we have accomplished over the year and make a list of what we wish to achieve in the next twelve months.

2023 was the third year of the AE Budapest Hub, but actually the first truly post-Covid year, in which scientific activities of all kinds could be resumed at full speed. Accordingly, each of the four thematic missions of our Hub were active organizing events mainly with in-person attendance, but also very often in hybrid format, as this is a legacy of the coronavirus pandemic which we have to live with and leverage as best as we can.

Our Hub has continued its collaboration with the Young Academy of Europe: in May an online mentoring event – in fact the third one in a series – for ERC Starting Grant applicants was held by YAE, in which our Hub acted as a collaborator. The synergies between the two entities could be tapped due to a happy coincidence: one of our eminent Co-Chairs, Katalin Solymosi, is also a member of YAE, and what is more, she has recently been elected as YAE’s next Chair. The Budapest Hub staff warmly congratulates her on this and wishes her a highly successful term in office.

Another organization with which our Hub has been working closely is EASAC, the European Academies Science Advisory Council. In late March we were involved in the organization of an open session on EASAC’s Report on Neonicotinoids: the venue was at the Palace of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest, co-organizers were EASAC, MTA and the AE Budapest Hub. The session was live streamed and recorded in full: the video recording received 476 views in 7 months.

Our Hub’s presence on social media (Facebook and Twitter/X), thanks to the vigorous cooperation of all AE Hubs’ communication staff initiated and superbly coordinated by the Cardiff Hub, got off to a good start earlier this year. We are keen on making our presence ever more intense on all the relevant social media channels in the future.

As last year already, this year we have also been glad to provide administrative assistance to AE’s Class C (“Life Sciences”), chaired by one of our Hub’s Co-Chairs, Professor Eva Kondorosi, MAE, in particular during the evaluation of the new nominations for AE membership as well as with preparations for the welcome ceremony of new MAEs of Class C at AE’s Annual Conference in early October in Munich.

Finally, let me come to a more personal point. After having served the AE Budapest Hub from its inception to this day – during the first three years of its existence –, I will soon resign as Academic Director of the Hub and hand the baton over to my successor, wishing the Hub and its staff and collaborators every success. As the project of the Hub and all that it stands for will always remain dear to me, I will of course remain open and prepared to any future collaboration with the Hub as a Member of AE, even if my current and future commitments prevent me from retaining the level of engagement the position of a Hub Academic Director requires.

As the winter festive season is drawing closer, I wish you all a Christmas and a New Year full of joy and – above all – full of hope for peace, in the face of all the heinous acts of violence that are rampant these days.

László Lovász
Academic Director, AE Budapest Hub