The Hungarian Academy of Sciences launches a call for applications to establish new Lendület “Momentum” research groups 2024–2029

MTA LENDÜLET “MOMENTUM” PROGRAMME
The Hungarian Academy of Sciences launches
a call for applications
to establish new Lendület “Momentum” research groups
2024–2029

Objectives

Under the funding scheme of the Lendület “Momentum” Programme, the Secretary-General of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, hereinafter referred to as “MTA”) launches a call for applications to establish research groups which will start working in 2024. The Lendület “Momentum” Programme (hereinafter referred to as “Lendület Programme”) aims at strengthening the community of young researchers in Hungary by attracting internationally acclaimed scientists and highly-talented young researchers, either by hiring them from abroad or keeping them in Hungary, and at the same time it aims at supporting young researchers in their efforts to become independent. The mission of the Lendület Programme is to support both excellence and mobility; accordingly, its purpose is to provide funding for research groups to be set up at host research entities to conduct research with a potential for ground-breaking results. A total amount of HUF 900 million may be earmarked for the funding of the new Lendület research groups from the funds made available under the appropriation provided for in Act XXV of 2023 on the Central Budget of Hungary for the Year 2024 (the Central Budget Act), Chapter XXXIII “Hungarian Academy of Sciences”, Title 6 “Appropriations governed by chapter owner”, Subtitle 6 “Lendület “Momentum” Programme”, allowing for the funding of 16-18 new Lendület research groups with starting dates between 1^st September 2024 and 1^st December 2024. The entire grant period, in accordance with the provisions of this call and with the grant award document, may be a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 5 years. It is a precondition for the actual transfer of the grant amounts due to be paid that the budget earmarked for the implementation of the Lendület Programme in the central budget of the year concerned should be sufficient for the further funding of the Lendület research groups.

Eligibility and conditions of participation

1. Researchers with a scientific PhD/DLA degree are invited to submit applications – in line with their respective age-groups and scientific achievements – to head new Lendület research groups in the categories specified below:

The Lendület I “Induló” (Starting) Grant

This type of grant is meant for young researchers who decide to return to or stay in Hungary in order to establish a new, independent research group for a new and high-gain research project. The call is open to promising young researchers with outstanding and steadily increasing scientific output who meet the following criteria:
a) they are under 40 years of age (born after 1^st January 1984);
b) they obtained their PhD degree after 1^st January 2014 and before 31^st December 2020;

A researcher raising a minor child may, at their request, be granted an extension of the age limit set for applicants and of the limit of the time that has elapsed after receipt of their PhD degree: for women the extension is 2 years per child or equals the time they took off for maternity leave after they had obtained their PhD – whichever is longer; for men the extension equals the time of parental leave actually taken.

c) they have already obtained a prestigious Hungarian grant (“OTKA” or “MTA Bolyai”) or an international postdoctoral or other research grant for a research topic of their own either as an individual researcher or as a head of a research group („Principal Investigator”).
d) they have not received any Lendület grant before.

In the “Lendület I” category, a grant may be obtained only once.

Winners of this category must undertake to apply for one of the calls of the European Research Council (ERC) in the course of their Lendület project.

The Lendület H “Haladó” (Advanced) Grant

This type of grant is meant for researchers aiming to do frontier research on a specific subject or to continue their ongoing research project already yielding excellent results.

Eligible applicants are internationally renowned researchers with excellent and steadily increasing scientific output, having gained experience as research group heads (“Principal Investigators”), that is, recently they have either received a Lendület (I, II) grant, or “Élvonal” (“Frontline”) grant or another, international grant comparable to a Lendület grant* (e.g. basic research grant for at least 4-5 years with a higher-than-average grant amount) for the implementation of a research project of their own, so that their grant is either still in progress or has ended in the past 5 years (after 2018).

Eligible applicants also include researchers who at any time after 1 January 2021 have submitted an application to an ERC call of any type – “Starting”, “Consolidator”, “Advanced” or “Synergy” –, and have with this application passed to Step 2 of the ERC evaluation process, without however eventually obtaining the grant.

In case of grants that are in progress the differences between the current project and the proposed project have to be described in detail.

Winners of this category must undertake to apply before the end of the 3^rd year of their Lendület project for the “Consolidator Grant” or “Advanced Grant” call of the European Research Council (ERC). They shall present their proposal submitted to either of the above in their three-year Lendület progress report.

In both categories, it is required that the applicant research group head should establish a research group composed of young researchers, thus contributing to the primary objective of the Lendület Programme, which is to strengthen the community of young researchers in Hungary and to support young researchers in their efforts to become independent.

2. Within the framework of the Lendület Programme, applications may be submitted for research activities to be conducted either at a research institution belonging to the Hungarian Research Network (“HUN-REN”), or at a Hungarian institution of higher education or at a Hungarian public collection or public institution conducting scientific research according to its statutes (hereinafter altogether referred to as “research entity”) as host institutions. Applications must be submitted jointly by the head of the host institution – that is, either the head of the institution or the rector of the institution of higher education hosting the research group – and the prospective Principal Investigator (hereinafter referred to as “PI”) of the research group to be established. Only new research themes, or research themes that have been on the agenda of the research entity for no longer than five years, exhibiting considerable success, may be proposed in the application. The specific research theme must be in strategic alignment with a promising line of research attracting considerable international interest, that is, a line of research whose performance indicator is, based on international assessment, considered excellent and as having been continuously on the rise over the last five years, the details of which must be provided in the research plan.

3. The grant is non-repayable and its minimum amount is HUF 25 million per year throughout the grant scheme, while the maximum amount can be HUF 40 million on average per year in case of “Lendület I”, and can be HUF 50 million on average per year in case of “Lendület H”. Planned overhead charges cannot exceed 17 per cent of the total requested grant amount. The existence of the grantee’s own resources is not required by the grantor.

4. A researcher may be a member or PI of only one Lendület research group at a time.

5. The prospective PI must ensure that in the case of receiving the Lendület grant, he or she will reside in Hungary throughout the duration of the entire grant period.

6. Applicants must be registered users of the Hungarian Scientific Bibliography Database (“Magyar Tudományos Művek Tára”, hereinafter referred to as “MTMT”), and their publication data stored there must be up-to-date.

Submission of applications, requirements regarding form and content

Applications must be submitted in English via the electronic submission portal of Lendület ( https://palyazat.mta.hu/lendulet_2024/). Applications in the fields of the humanities and social sciences may, in justified cases, be submitted exclusively in Hungarian. The deadline for electronic submission is

16:00 CET, 12^th February 2024.

The host research entity’s declaration, to be downloaded from the submission portal and to be signed by the head of the host research entity and its chief financial officer, as well as the applicant’s declaration, to be downloaded from the same portal and to be signed by the applicant, shall also be submitted by post** in one copy each to the Department of Grant Management of the Secretariat of MTA (hereinafter referred to as “Department of Grant Management”) (name and address: MTA Titkársága, Kutatási Pályázatok Főosztálya, Nádor utca 7., H-1051 Budapest), with the latest date of the postmark being the electronic submission deadline specified above. The reference “Lendület pályázat 2024” (“Application for Lendület 2024”) shall be put on the envelope containing the documents. No application fee shall be charged.

For further information regarding the full application procedure, applicants are requested to contact the staff of the Department of Grant Management at the e-mail address lendulet [at] titkarsag [dot] mta [dot] hu, or by phone at

+36 1 411 6336 (for the humanities and social sciences, as well as for the life sciences)

+36 1 411 6287 (for mathematics and physical sciences and engineering).

The submission portal of Lendület can be entered by using the username and password valid for the Academy’s Database (“MTA Akadémiai Adattár”, hereinafter referred to as “AAT”). The submission portal automatically retrieves the prospective PI’s data stored in the AAT, so these data should and can only be modified in the AAT. To ensure that the data used are up-to-date, applicants are requested to update their data in the AAT where relevant.

If the applicant has not registered in the AAT yet, registration can be done using Guideline 1. If the applicant has already got an AAT username and password (or after registration has been successfully completed), the applicant should follow the instructions in the Guide from point 3 onwards, so as to fill in the obligatory data in the AAT.

On the submission portal of Lendület, Guideline 2 should be consulted for completing and submitting the application.

The Secretariat of MTA shall perform the administrative duties related to the management of the Lendület Programme pursuant to § 19 (1) of Act XL of 1994 on the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (hereinafter referred to as the “Academy Act”).

The application package must include:

The following details to be entered in the online application forms on the submission portal:

• Personal data of the prospective PI (name, date of birth, citizenship, sex, contact details, name of current employer, scientific degree and date of its acquisition, MTMT registration number);
• Basic data of the application (Lendület category, application title, field of science, short description of the research project, short summary for the media, name of the research group, name of the host research entity);
• A list of the prestigious Hungarian grants (“OTKA”, “MTA Bolyai”, “MTA Premium”, “MTA Lendület”) or international postdoctoral or research grants (e.g. ERC) which the prospective PI has already obtained for a research topic of their own, as well as a list of the prospective PI’s running research projects and the data of any of his or her ERC applications which have been admitted to Step 2 of the ERC evaluation process (name of the grant type, research theme, period/year of application, result/qualification);
• The prospective PI’s scientific results, scientometric data and data on publication activity;
• The grant amount requested, broken down in annual amounts (in million HUF);
• Additional data (suggested foreign reviewers or Hungarian reviewers living abroad, their contact details, reviewers whose involvement should be avoided, information about proposed group members, and in the case of an age limit extension request, the number of children the prospective PI has).

The following documents to be uploaded to the submission portal (in PDF format):

• A project proposal (using the template “Proposal”, which can be downloaded from the submission portal), which shall be composed of:
I) The prospective PI’s narrative CV;
II) A short description of the research project planned for five years; in addition, in the case of applications in the humanities and social sciences, possible suggestion by the applicant as to the major evaluation criteria to be used for the progress reports (for further details see the “Funding conditions for grantees” section);
III) A detailed work plan for the first three-year phase of the planned research project, with a breakdown of tasks by year, including envisaged output and publication activity;
IV) Personnel background of the planned research project;
V) Institutional background of the planned research project;
OR in the case of an application which has been admitted to Step 2 of the ERC evaluation process Parts “A”, “B1” and “B2” of the submitted ERC application, together with its evaluation report and the prospective PI’s narrative CV using the template “narrative CV” downloadable from the submission portal; in addition, a short summary (no longer than 3 pages) – using the template “Modification”, downloadable from the submission portal – must also be provided where modifications to the scientific content of the project are also being planned due to the differences in the respective – ERC and Lendület – budget plans;

• MTMT tables showing aggregated data (summary table) and data specific to fields of science (specialty table) (to fix the table settings and to download the tables please consult Guideline 3);

• A budget plan supplemented by a justification (using the templates “Budget plan” and “Budget plan justification”, downloadable from the submission portal, and following the instructions of Guideline 4);

• A declaration by the host research entity (using the template “Host research entity declaration”, downloadable from the submission portal), signed by the head and chief financial officer of the host research entity;

• A declaration by the applicant (on the authenticity and correctness of the data provided, on the applicant’s place of residence being in Hungary, on an age limit extension request where relevant, and on the processing of personal data, using the template ”Applicant declaration”, downloadable from the submission portal), signed by the prospective PI.

The following original documents to be submitted also on paper (by post):

• the host research entity’s declaration (using the template “Host research entity declaration”, downloadable from the submission portal), which shall be signed by the head of the host institution and its chief financial officer;

• the applicant’s declaration (using the template “Applicant declaration”, downloadable from the submission portal), which shall be signed by the prospective PI.

The applications submitted will be checked by the Department of Grant Management. Where the application meets the formal requirements specified in the call, the Department of Grant Management shall, at the latest by the 7th day after submission, send to the applicant a confirmation of admission of the application for evaluation or a request for remedy of deficiencies; otherwise, it shall reject the application without evaluating it. Where the application is rejected without evaluation, the information provided on this must contain the reason of the rejection and a reference to the possibility and terms of lodging a complaint.

The application shall be rejected without evaluation if (1) the applicant is personally ineligible to apply; (2) the documents required in the call are received after the time limit; (3) the applicant has provided information which is either false, forged or misleading, and which could substantially affect the outcome of the decision upon evaluation. In the event that an application which has been admitted for evaluation turns out to be incorrect or incomplete, the Department of Grant Management shall call on the applicant to remedy the deficiencies identified. Such remedy of deficiencies may be allowed once, and the applicant must provide the correct or complete version within five (5) working days after receipt of the notification to this effect. Should the applicant provide a rectification which contains an error or which is incomplete, or should the applicant fail to correct any irregularities within the specified time limit, an eventual decision on the rejection of the application without evaluation shall be made by the Lendület Committee. The grantor shall provide reasons for the rejection.

Legal remedy

No legal remedy may be sought concerning the substance of the decision on the results of the call.

Information on how to lodge a complaint

Applicants may lodge a complaint, addressed to the Chair of the Lendület Committee, should they believe that a procedural element of the call procedure or of the decision-making concerning the award of the grant, or of the issue of the grant award document or of the transfer of the state-funded grant amount or of the recovery of undue payments has violated in any way a legislative provision or has been contrary to what has been provided for in this call for applications. No complaint may be lodged concerning the scientific evaluation of the applications. The complaint shall contain the name and address of the applicant lodging the complaint, the specification of the contested measure or of the instance of inaction, the description of the relevant facts, the identification of the specific legislative provision or provision of this call which was allegedly violated by the contested measure or instance of inaction, and the signature of the applicant lodging the complaint.

The complaint may be submitted only once within 15 days following the receipt of the notification about the decision containing the contested measure or implying an instance of inaction, via e‑mail to the address lendulet [at] titkarsag [dot] mta [dot] hu and at the same time by post**, using the postal address of the Department of Grant Management: MTA Titkársága, Kutatási Pályázatok Főosztálya, Nádor u. 7., H-1051 Budapest. The complaint shall be decided on by the Chair of the Lendület Committee within 30 days following its receipt, based on a review which shall be limited to matters which are being specifically contested in the complaint. Incomplete complaints, or complaints lodged after the above-mentioned deadline or complaints concerning the scientific evaluation shall be rejected without further examination.

Evaluation of the applications submitted

In the evaluation and ranking of the applications, preference will be given to researchers presently living abroad and having already earned international recognition for their research conducted abroad and are planning to return to Hungary, as well as to applicants who, either in the course of their earlier Lendület project or afterwards in the period leading up to the date of their current Lendület application, have also submitted an application to ERC.

The evaluation of the applications proceeds in two stages in line with the provisions of the Decision 21/2023 (XII.04.) of the President of MTA on the Lendület Programme and of the MTA Lendület Rules of Procedure, both of which are available at MTA’s website mta.hu under the heading “Lendület” within the menu item “Call for Papers”. In stage one, formally valid applications are reviewed anonymously by at least three external experts, Hungarian and foreign nationals, invited by the Lendület Jury. The external experts review the applications in line with the criteria set out below, specified by the Lendület Jury. In their assessment, reviewers must make it clear whether or not they recommend the applications for funding and also whether or not they consider the requested grant amounts realistic. If they think that the grant amounts requested are not realistic, they may recommend a modification of the grant amounts. Based on the applications and their anonymous reviews, the Jury shall formulate an opinion of its own and shall set up a ranking of the applications. The criteria of preference laid down in the call for applications shall be applied by the Lendület Jury.

Evaluation criteria:
A) Comprehensive scientific evaluation of the research project in terms of the importance, novelty and international competitiveness of the topic, and in terms of envisaged performance and feasibility
Maximum score: 10 points

B) Evaluation of the prospective PI’s scientific performance – in terms of achievements summarized in the narrative CV, grants obtained, scientific performance and publications (especially in the last five active years)
Maximum score: 10 points

C) Overall evaluation of the application – how strong the basic research aspect of the project is, its relevance for science, societal impact, applicability, the prospective PI’s and other project participants’ capability to accomplish the research work, how realistic the requested grant amount is, expected efficiency (results envisaged, proportionality of required resources and costs), suitability of the host research entity
Maximum score: 5 points

Maximum scores on each aspect must be specifically justified by the reviewers.
Total maximum score: 25 points

D) Statement (yes/no) as to whether the reviewer recommends the application for funding, also taking into account the extent to which the host research entity is prepared and suitable to host the project.

E) Statement (yes/no) as to whether the reviewer considers the budget plan of the application as realistic. If the reviewer thinks that the budget plan is not realistic, but the application is otherwise worthy of support, the reviewer shall propose another grant amount which he/she finds more realistic and sufficient for the implementation of the research project envisaged.

After collecting the reviews, in stage two of the evaluation process the Lendület Jury invited by the Chair of the Lendület Committee shall evaluate and rank the applications, taking into account the anonymous reviewers’ descriptive assessments and scores as well as the differences between scores and the provisions setting out the criteria of preference. The number of applications ranked by the Lendület Jury shall be 30 percent higher than the number of applications that can be funded from the budget earmarked for the Lendület grant scheme.

The Lendület Jury shall propose to the Lendület Committee a list of the applications to be selected for funding as well as the respective grant amounts.

The final selection decision shall be made by the Lendület Committee within 120 calendar days after the application submission deadline.

Applicants shall be notified of the call results by the Department of Grant Management via e-mail within 10 working days after the decision has been made. Within 10 working days after the announcement of the call results, applicants will be provided access to the anonymous reviews of their respective applications on the submission portal. A list of the winners, their research themes and the grant amounts awarded will be made public on MTA’s website.

Funding conditions for grantees

Upon meeting the conditions laid down in the grant award document, the applicant shall be entitled to a non-repayable grant amount, which shall be allocated on a yearly basis. The annual state-funded grant amounts shall be set in view of the part of the budget which has been earmarked for the Lendület grant scheme for the given year.

The detailed rules concerning the transfer and the use of the state-funded grant amounts as well as the eventual repayment of unduly used grant amounts shall be laid down in the grant award document.

Upon the starting date of the Lendület grant period, the PI of the Lendület research group concerned will be required to renounce any Bolyai János Research Scholarship he or she may have obtained previously and to refrain from participating in any running Lendület project.

Upon the entry into force of the grant award document, the PI of the Lendület research group concerned will be required to reside in Hungary.

The grant may be used for both personnel and operational expenditures (see Guide 4). The grant may cover the remuneration/salary for the PI, including social charges, or a wage supplement. Unless the successful applicant has already been employed by the host research entity at the time of the award of the Lendület grant, the host research entity shall appoint him/her to full-time public employee status based on the declaration of commitment it has issued as host research entity. If the successful applicant has already been employed by the host research entity at the time of the submission of the application, he/she may be entitled to a wage increase/wage supplement to be covered from the grant.

It is required that the PI of the research group retain during the Lendület grant period full-time public employee status at the host research entity and that at least 50 percent of the PI’s full working time (at least 0.5 FTE) be dedicated to the Lendület project. The FTE value incorporating the PI’s involvement in other grants and projects cannot exceed 1 in any period throughout the duration of the Lendület project.

The budget plan may provide for a gross remuneration/salary of HUF 1,200,000/month for the PI in the “Lendület I” category, and a gross remuneration/salary of HUF 1,600,000/month in the “Lendület H” category, to be covered from the grant. The provision of higher amounts to be covered from the grant may be allowed only in duly justified cases. Such justification has to be specifically presented in the budget plan, and the decision on any higher remuneration shall be made by the Lendület Jury.

Where the applicant has already been employed by the host research entity, he/she can apply for a wage increase/wage supplement for the extra work performed by selecting from the two options below, the one which is more favourable to him/her, and in case the applicant is awarded the grant, the host research entity will have to declare the PI’s wage increase/wage supplement based on the option he/she has selected:

1. the PI shall receive maximum the difference between the amount of his/her regular remuneration (including social charges) fixed in his/her appointment or employment contract and the amount of remuneration/salary indicated in this call above (including social charges) as a wage increase/wage supplement to be covered from the Lendület grant, or
2. the PI shall receive a gross wage increase/wage supplement of HUF 380,000/month in the “Lendület I” category, and of HUF 450,000/month in the “Lendület H” category, to be covered from the Lendület grant.

The PI has to declare in the applicant’s declaration and also indicate in the justification of the budget plan which of the above two options he/she would select for declaring the wage increase/wage supplement to be covered from the Lendület grant.

In addition to this, the grant may cover, in accordance with what has been set out in the application, the salary of one or more researchers, including related social charges, current expenses such as material and supplies and overheads related to the project, and the purchase of new instruments needed for the research. The PI and the members of the research group may not carry out under any other legal relationship the same research activities as those carried out in the project funded from the Lendület grant.

The PI of the Lendület research group must prepare a progress report each year on the group’s work. These progress reports shall be reviewed by the Lendület Jury and the qualifications shall be decided upon by the Lendület Committee, based on the proposal of the Lendület Jury.

The annual (1^st year, 2^nd year, 4^th year) progress reports will be short summaries of the research work performed and the results achieved. Each report will be reviewed by one member of the Lendület Jury. The indicative qualification of the progress reports shall be “successful” or “unsuccessful”.

The three-year progress report shall be a detailed summary of the research work completed by the research group in the first three years of the project, highlighting the most important results of international importance, to be complemented with an oral presentation. The final report, to be submitted following the 5^th year of the project, shall be a comprehensive account of the performance of the research group, to be complemented with an oral presentation. The three-year progress report and the final report shall each be reviewed by 2 external experts. The PIs’ oral presentations shall be heard and judged by the members of the competent section of the Lendület Jury. The three-year report and the final report shall be qualified as “successful” or “unsuccessful”, and within the former, the categories “excellent”, “good” and “sufficient” shall be distinguished.

Researchers applying in a field of the humanities and social sciences may in their application propose a choice as to which of the procedures should be used in applying the major evaluation criteria for the evaluation of the project from the 3^rd project year; however, this cannot be changed later:
- in evaluation procedure “A”, the evaluation shall be based on the originality of the researcher’s own discoveries, theories, interpretations, innovative achievements or the amount of grant funds obtained;
- in evaluation procedure “B”, the evaluation criteria shall include the novelty of the research, publication activities, conference papers, international integration, mentoring of young researchers and public outreach.

Based on the reports and their evaluations, the relevant sections of the Lendület Jury shall put forward their proposals regarding the acceptance and qualification of the reports to the Lendület Committee. The Lendület Committee shall formulate its opinion and decide on the qualifications on the basis of the proposals submitted by the sections of the Lendület Jury and the reports themselves. The PI of the research group and the head of the host research entity shall be notified of this qualification decision.

Where it is established in the evaluation that the research group’s scientific performance has been “unsuccessful” for the first 3 years, the grant amount meant to cover the period from the date of entry into force of the relevant decision of the Lendület Committee up to the end of the 4^th year of the project may be used by the group only to such an extent as to cover the documented costs of the phase-out, that is, the costs of the dissolution of the research group.

PI’s in the “Lendület I” category are required to apply for one of the calls of the European Research Council (ERC) in the course of their Lendület project and to present their ERC application in their final Lendület report. PI’s in the “Lendület H” category are required to apply before the end of the 3^rd year of their Lendület project for the “Consolidator Grant” or “Advanced Grant” call of the European Research Council (ERC) and to present their ERC proposal submitted to either of the above in their three-year Lendület progress report. Failure in fulfilling this requirement will prevent them from obtaining an “excellent” qualification for their Lendület project.

During the grant period, Lendület research groups are expected to draw up their independent research programmes, to act as advisors to students preparing for university-level scientific competitions or preparing their PhD dissertations, and they are expected to make every effort for their own successful participation in Hungarian and international research grant calls.

The PI shall ensure that the data of any publication (and in the case of collections of articles any of the articles included therein) produced and published using the Lendület grant are uploaded in digital format to the system of MTMT operated by the MTA Library and Information Centre (“MTA Könyvtár és Információs Központ”, hereinafter referred to as “MTA KIK”), as well as in PDF/A format to the institutional repository classified by MTA KIK REAL or by MTMT’s Repository Classification Board (“MTMT Repozitóriumminősítő Bizottsága”) no later than the date when the final report is submitted, or in the case of publications released following the submission of the final report, within 30 days from their release.

Publications prepared within the framework of the Lendület Programme shall contain as affiliation the Lendület research group concerned, with its name written in full. The full name of the research group shall consist of the acronym of the grantor, MTA, and that of the host research entity, joined with a dash, the name of the Lendület Programme and the name of the research group: in Hungarian e.g. MTA–XXX Lendület Alpha Kutatócsoport, in English e.g. MTA–XXX Lendület “Momentum” Alpha Research Group.

In any publication issued as part of the Lendület project, the PI shall make sure that a statement appears in the publication saying this document has been issued with the support of MTA within the framework of the Lendület Programme. Where the PI of the Lendület research group obtains an ERC grant during the Lendület grant period, the grant award document related to the Lendület project may, based on a decision of the Chair of the Lendület Committee, be modified accordingly.

Further information

MTA hereby informs applicants of the following:

a) The Hungarian State Treasury operates a monitoring system regarding budgetary funding and is involved in the coordination of the use of budgetary support funds. A support decision not registered in the monitoring system may not serve as a basis for valid funding.

b) By providing data for the monitoring system, MTA shall ensure that in the case of funding through a grant process, the data of the call for applications are published on the relevant website, as are all data related to facts occurring or conditions determined by MTA in connection with the use of the grant amount, as well as data related to facts and conditions concerning the legal relationship between grantor and grantee, the provision of the grant amount, and any reporting requirement. The data registered in the monitoring system may be deleted after 5 years from the last calendar day of the year in which the decision of support was made.

c) The legal provisions on the right to informational self-determination set out what shall be considered as data of public interest. The data which would not qualify as such in the first place but are being processed by an individual or a body
- who/which is in charge of the preparation of the call for applications;
- who/which is in charge of the announcement of the call for applications;
- who/which is in charge of the preparation of the decision on the award of the grant;
- who/which is in charge of the decision-making, and which are related to the call for applications or to the application process or to the decision on the award of the grant shall be considered data which are public on grounds of public interest, provided that they are not to be considered sensitive or special personal data.

d) MTA shall check the use of the grant in line with the terms of the grant award document, pursuant to the provisions of Government Decree 368/2011 (XII. 31.) on the implementation of the Act on Public Finances.

e) The annual amount used from the grant may, as a result of changes in the relevant legislation, be different from the grant amount awarded. Where changes in the relevant legislation result in reduction of the grant amount awarded, the grantor shall exclude its liability for any damage ensuing therefrom.

The aim of and legal basis for the processing of personal data during the call procedure

1. The personal data given by the applicant shall be processed for the purposes of the conduct of the call procedure by the Department of Grant Management at the Secretariat of MTA within the Consolidated Grant Management Framework (“Egységes Pályázati Keretrendszer”, “EPK”) of MTA.
These personal data will be accessible to the competent organisational units of the Secretariat of MTA based on the MTA’s statutes and rules of procedures, as well as to reviewers participating in the evaluation process of the applications, in so much as it is needed for the performance of their duties defined by law.
The personal data of the grantees will be processed by the host research entity concerned in order to conclude the contract of employment and by the Secretariat of MTA in order to issue the grant award document and to process the financial reports related to the grant.

2. The legal basis for the processing of personal data is the fulfilment of the data controller’s public duty as provided for in Act XL of 1994 on the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, pursuant to Article 6 (1) e) of the GDPR, whereby processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest.

3. Any changes in the personal data of the applicant should be communicated at the following e-mail address: lendulet [at] titkarsag [dot] mta [dot] hu.

4. The guideline on MTA’s data processing policy is available on MTA’s website mta.hu, under “Hasznos információk” (Useful information), by selecting “Adatkezelési tájékoztató” (Data Processing Policy).

Budapest, 15^th December 2023

László Kollár
Secretary-General of MTA

* These grants do not include (i) either domestic or international single-researcher scholarships and postdoctoral fellowships (e.g. “MSCA”, “OTKA” or “MTA PD”); (ii) those international consortium grants where the researcher is only a participant, not the leader of the consortium (e.g. leader of the Hungarian group or member of the international governing body of an EU research network, except where the researcher was the applicant); (iii) strategic grants evaluated on national level where the primary evaluation criterion is the suitability of the institution and not that of the researcher (e.g. “NAP”, “GINOP”, “INTERREG”).

In case applicants are unsure of their eligibility, they can ask the Lendület Jury for an opinion via the Department of Grant Management of the Secretariat of MTA.

** In case the applicant has signed the above-mentioned declarations, submitted electronically, using either “AVDH” electronic signature (qualified digital certificate) or other qualified electronic signature as provided for in § 12 (1) d) of the Government Decree 451/2016 (XII.19.) laying down the rules of electronic public administration services, he/she will not need to submit any paper copy of these documents by post.