J. Pótó, M. Tolnai, P. Zilahy (eds.): Understanding the Hungarian Academy of Sciences : a guide

Sándor Kónya: A Brief History Of The Hungarian Academy Of Sciences (1825-2002)

SÁNDOR KÓNYA: A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE HUNGARIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES (1825-2002) policies. From 1996 through 2001, Government science expenditures rose by 230%. The Academy's own budget rose by 310% from 1995 through 2002. Salaries of university lecturers and research personnel were raised by 34% in 2001 alone. HAS has only recently got round to defining its new, triple function. First of all, the Academy is a traditional venue of research with its own network of research institutes (since 1949) as well as a site for scientific discussion and publication (since its inception in 1825). Secondly, the Academy is the counsel of the entire Hungarian nation taking it upon itself to explore and establish courses of action in long-term issues (cf with its National Strategic Research project since 1996). Thirdly, the Academy represents the interests of all research workers in Hungary embracing as it does all research personnel with degrees into its public body (as provided for by the Academy Act of 1994). Since 1996, the Academy must also expound and periodically update Hungary's long-term science policy objectives. Since 1994, it must also regularly report to Parliament on the situation of Hungarian science and scholarship. From 1996 through 2000 the Academy opened up its public body to scholars and scientists living abroad but declaring themselves to be Hungarian. It has provided grants and scholarships, since 1997, to all eligible Hungarians living outside Hungary's frontiers. It has also, since 2001, extended its activities to church institutions. Thus, HAS has redefined the relationship of science and society. It proposed and organised, first in 1997, a yearly Festival of Hungarian Science proferring the chance, among other things, for the general public to tour university lecture-rooms and research institutes. A Public Relations Office was established at the Academy in 1996. Two years later, the Academy Club was opened providing a congenial meeting-place for entrepreneurs, politicians, and scholars. The Academy has re-structured its network of research institutes comprising 39 institutes at present. Sites vacated from 1990 through 1996 have been salvaged, other sites have been merged while each institute maintained its own guaranteed staff and budget. (The latter have been doubled from 1996 through 2002.) New research units have been established in ecology, water conservation, minority studies, experimental medicine, Hungarian Plains research, and linguistics. In 2000, as many as six Hungarian research institutes won titles of Centers of Excellence of the European Union - five of those belonging to HAS. The Academy's own scholarly activities have also been refurbished. A new order of honorary and obituary lectures has been worked out. A new central unit has been made responsible for publishing honorary and obituary lectures. A new, monthly Programme Booklet gives directions to those wishing to attend the scholarly functions of the Academy and its institutes. The quarterly news magazine named Akadémia is sent out to all of the Academy's 10 000 public body members. A new edition of the Academy's Almanac was printed in 2001, and both the Academy's \earbook and a Biographical Encyclopedia of all past and present members of HAS are in progress. Shortly after the inception of HAS's National Strategic Research project in 1996, the book series Hungary at the Turn of the Millennium began to appear. Up to the time of writing, 28 volumes have been printed on such disparate topics as Hungarian agriculture, energy policies, water conservation, health, NATO, environment issues, ecology, etc. Summaries of each were printed in HAS's Ezredforduló (Turn of the Millennium) journal. At the joint request of UNESCO and ICSU, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences organized the first ever World Conference on Science in Budapest. HAS currently has 336 ordinary members. 2182 researchers have won Doctors of the Academy degrees in the Academy's system of qualifications, and the public body of FLAS boasts around 10 000 members with at least Ph.D. degrees. 17