Balázs Hankó: a record number of entries were received for the 34th National Science and Innovation Olympiad

Zoltán Birkner, Vice President of MISZ, will give a speech at a press conference on the 34th National Science and Innovation Olympiad (OTIO) held by the Ministry of Culture and Innovation (KIM) and the Hungarian Innovation Association (MISZ) at the Piarist High School in Budapest on January 29, 2025. MTI/Tamás Purger

He announced that 428 young people from 296 teams aged 14-18 will compete at OTIO this year, with 17 foreign teams also participating in the competition.

Balázs Hankó pointed out that Europe has led itself into a “competitiveness hole” because, according to the data, only 4 of the 50 largest technology companies are in the EU, and barely 5 percent of venture capital is in Europe, the United States’ share is 52 percent, and China’s is 40 percent.

Scientific performance is also declining in Europe, having fallen from the previous 25 percent to 18 percent in the past decade or so. The data shows that a turnaround in competitiveness and innovation is needed – he emphasized.

He said that in order to achieve this, 3 percent of GDP must be spent on innovation, the innovation gap compared to Western countries must be reduced, greater focus must be placed on cooperation between industrial companies and universities, and a more flexible, innovative regulatory environment is needed, as well as talented young people – he listed.

In the Hungarian model, the number of doctoral students at universities has been doubled in the past 5 years, the number of researchers and developers at Hungarian industrial companies has also been doubled, because there are 6,500 researchers and developers per million inhabitants, this must be increased to 9,000. Innovation resources have been tripled in the past 10 years, 1,042 billion forints are being spent for such purposes.