Six student laboratories will be renovated with nearly HUF 343 million of funding under the second round of the Selye János Student Laboratory Network Building Programme. Under the joint project of the National Innovation Agency (NIÜ) and the Hungarian Student Labs Association, two new student labs and four student labs to be developed will receive non-reimbursable grants to modernise the equipment of the labs, provide top-quality equipment and the human resources needed to make a research career attractive.
The student lab developments will be directly supported by the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund (NRDI), contributing to the attraction of young people to research careers and to the effective use of knowledge and capacities in higher education in Hungary.
The applicant student labs can add special equipment such as: a solar telescope, a hydrogen-powered car, a wind energy system, a hydrogen energy cell, PCR machines, a fog chamber, a thermal camera, equipment for ECG and DNA testing or robotic arms.
"The government has set a target in the Neumann János Programme to increase the number of R&D personnel per million people in Hungary from the current 6,000 to 9,000 by 2030, bringing it up to the level of the most innovative countries. The Selye János Student Lab Network Development Programme aims to promote research careers among secondary school students. Our aim is to go beyond school education in the field of science and to introduce young secondary school students to careers in science and innovation through interactive experiments and extra-curricular activities", said László Bódis, CEO of the National Innovation Agency (NIÜ), on the occasion of the announcement of the decision. He added that the government's priority objective is to support young people's career choices in mathematics, science, technology and information technology (STEM), which are key areas for the advancement of the knowledge economy and innovation. The National Innovation Agency is the custodian of this overarching objective and supports projects such as these.
The NIÜ has awarded a total of HUF 1.5 billion in non-reimbursable grants from the National Research, Development and Innovation (NRDI) Fund for the construction and development of student laboratories.
The winning applicants of the programme are:
| Name of the institution operating/establishing the student laboratory |
| Szombathelyi Nagy Lajos Gimnázium |
| Zalaegerszegi Zrínyi Miklós Gimnázium |
| Fehérgyarmati Deák Ferenc Általános Iskola, Gimnázium és Kollégium |
| Kisvárdai Bessenyei György Gimnázium és Kollégium |
| Mátészalkai Esze Tamás Gimnázium |
| Tóth Árpád Gimnázium, Debrecen |
