Programmes cancelled or postponed at Hungarian Academy of Sciences due to coronavirus

10 March 2020

Consequently, the March meeting of the Presidium has been cancelled. If need be, the members of the Presidium, which is the main decision-making body of the Academy between two General Assemblies, will be able to vote electronically concerning the points on the agenda.

With respect to the preparations regarding the General Assembly scheduled for May, the April meeting of the Presidium will probably be held. However, if possible, the necessary decisions will be passed on electronically and the meeting will be restricted to the shortest possible time. The time and the method of organizing the General Assembly may be influenced by the potential worsening of the public health situation.

According to the schedule, the candidates for the positions of the president and the secretary-general of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences will publish their programmes during a forum on 20 April, before the assembly for the election of officials takes place. Whether this forum will be held also depends on the public health situation.

On 6 March 2020, the Secretary-General of the MTA emphatically requested the Section Presidents that programmes after 9 March 2020 should only be held if the event in question is unpostponable and even then, the number of participants should be restricted to the bare minimum. The President of the Academy confirmed this in a ruling issued during the 10 March meeting.

Scheduled inaugural lectures and other Academy events will also be postponed.

Discussions are in progress between the President of the Academy and the President of the Doctoral Council about postponing doctoral defenses. Public doctoral defenses will not be arranged by the Secretariat of the Doctoral Council until further notice.