MTA Governing Board (GB): the bill is unacceptable, its withdrawal is highly justified

FT Resolution 11/2019 (VI. 12.)

Resolution regarding the bills submitted on behalf of the Government on the modification of particular laws necessary for the transformation of the institutional system and financing of the research, development and innovation system.

1. The amendments package does not take into consideration the points discussed and adopted by consensus during the coordination between the ITM and the MTA - in essence, it overrides them unilaterally.
2. The regulation concerning the usage of assets in possession of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences is particularly unacceptable.
3. The bill reflects an approach aiming to unjustifiably de-emphasize ‘basic research’, which is problem-oriented, ‘bottom-up ‘exploratory research, driven by inquisitiveness, and which aims to uncover new connections and result in genuine know-how.
4. Should the bill come into effect, decisions on which research receives support would be made within a framework of a distorted procedure, providing a minimal role for scholarship and the scientific community.
   This approach is unacceptable for the MTA, which is responsible for fresh domestic and universal knowledge and scholarship.

In summary: the bill is unacceptable and its withdrawal is highly justified. With regard to the serious concerns, should parliament decide to adopt the bill, the MTA’s initiation of a constitutional review would be inevitable.

Budapest, 12 June 2019

Briefly about the Governing Board

The tasks of the Governing Board are to supervise the compliance and reasonability of academic management and examine the annual budget policies and financial statements of the Academy.