Audit of Academy’s research network launched – the Presidium’s reply to the Minister of the ITM
The Scientific Presidential Committee of the Research Network of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences met again, and was followed by a meeting of the Presidium of the MTA. The Academy will begin a comprehensive audit of the research institute network. Conforming to the General Assembly’s resolution, the Presidium sent a letter to Minister László Palkovics, which is published on our homepage in full in Hungarian.
On 15 December 2018, the Scientific Presidential Committee of the Research Network of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA KTEB) had its second meeting, in the building of the Ministry for Innovation and Technology.
The aim of the meeting was to proceed with the preparation of the audit of the Academy’s research network. The professional guidelines for the audit had been accepted by KTEB at their first meeting on 16 November 2018.
The Council of Research Institutes (AKT) had its meeting on 18 December 2018. László Lovász, President of the MTA, informed the members of the Council about the schedule of the audit. At the 16 November 2018 meeting, KTEB proposed that the independent External Advisory Boards (KTT) of each institute be expanded to two members. The resolution states that these scientists should be nominated by those members of KTEB who were delegated by the Minister of Innovation and Technology.
The members of the evaluation committees are to receive an invitation to participate in the audit process and the necessary background documents, questionnaires and evaluation sheets. At the same time, Ádám Török, Secretary General of MTA, requests that the leaders of the research institutes cooperate with the audit committees.
Evaluation committees are to submit their reports to KTEB by 14 March 2019. KTEB is to make suggestions concerning the further work of each research institute by 22 March 2019. The Presidium of the Academy (the main legislative body of the MTA between two General Assemblies) will also weigh in concerning these reports.
The expectations and criteria of the audit are discussed in a separate article in detail. The members of the evaluation committees are to be published here later.
The last meeting of the Presidium of the MTA in 2018 took place on 18 December. The directors of the research centres and independent research institutes were also invited to the meeting.
Based on the General Assembly’s resolution, the Presidium accepted the text of the letter sent in reply to the Minister of the ITM. The Academy sent this letter to Minister László Palkovics and to the members of the General Assembly.
The leaders of each research unit were informed that their December salaries (due at the beginning of January) are to be transferred by ITM. The contract, soon to be signed, is being concluded to cover the funding of the Young Researcher Programme, the Momentum (Lendület) Programme and the Premium Post-Doctoral Grant. However, the budgeted funds for the overhead costs of the research network are still not available to the Academy.
The MTA has stated that in order to fully comply with legislation concerning the management of the state budget, the ITM should issue a written assurance to the research centres regarding the incomes guaranteed by the approved 2019 budget of each insti