Hungary and the Czech Republic have reached agreements on multiple concrete research and digitalisation cooperation measures, including launching joint research and innovation grant calls with an annual budget in the multi‑million euro range, Minister of Science and Technology Tanács Zoltán reported on his Facebook page. The meeting involved Karel Havlíček, Deputy Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, and took place in the context of the first-ever joint Czech–Hungarian government session; Hungary’s delegation included the prime minister, Tanács Zoltán and seven additional ministers. The meeting and related coverage are dated 29 October 2026.
Joint calls, mixed review panels and mutual expert involvement
The two sides decided to issue joint research, development and innovation calls. According to the announcement, these calls will carry several million euros in annual funding and will be assessed by a mixed Czech–Hungarian review committee. In addition, each country will invite experts from the other to participate in evaluations of their national scientific grant competitions.
The agreement also foresees closer cooperation around European Research Council (ERC) funding: Hungary and the Czech Republic will provide knowledge transfer, joint mentoring and coaching to improve their success rates in ERC applications. ERC grants are widely regarded as a benchmark of research excellence and can provide significant, sometimes multi‑million euro, funding to individual projects.
Review of ELI ERIC’s financing model
A prominent agenda item was the operation and financing of the ELI ERIC (Extreme Light Infrastructure European Research Infrastructure Consortium). The parties said they want to move the consortium’s financing toward a business model that is sustainable for both states. The minister pointed out that at present Hungary and the Czech Republic cover roughly 90 percent of the costs of this very expensive research infrastructure, which is used by researchers from nearly 40 countries — a situation that motivates a review of the funding model.
ELI ERIC, established in 2021, provides access to some of the world’s most advanced high‑power laser systems. The consortium operates two principal research centres: ELI ALPS in Szeged, Hungary, focused on ultrashort, attosecond light pulses, and ELI Beamlines in Dolní Břežany near Prague, which hosts experiments using high‑intensity lasers and particle beams.
Founding members of the consortium include Hungary, the Czech Republic, Italy and Lithuania; Bulgaria later became a full member. The infrastructure supports research across physics, chemistry, materials science and medicine, and its facilities are accessible to international researchers through competitive proposals.
Artificial intelligence cooperation
Artificial intelligence was also on the agenda. Following the success of the recent Central and Eastern Europe AI Summit (CEE AI Summit) held in Prague, the Hungarian side offered to host the conference in Hungary in one of the coming years.
Significance
The agreement is notable because joint calls and reciprocal expert involvement can strengthen regional research performance and ERC competitiveness, while rethinking ELI ERIC’s financing aims to establish a fairer and more durable funding structure for a high‑cost shared infrastructure. The cooperation also signals political willingness on both sides to jointly support major international research facilities.
According to the minister’s statement, further details and the specific terms of the joint calls will be provided at a later date.
