During a June 2008 workshop on the future of science in Hungary, we conducted a session on the strengths and weaknesses in Hungarian science. Here are some of the results:

WEAKNESSES

Long-term issues with education.

Diminishing quality of secondary school and university quality; brain drain; good teachers going to industry.

Hungarian science is too theoretical and inward-looking.

One participant said, "There's a special kind of vanity in Hungarian science. Scienctists are sometimes too proud of themselves... and driven by questions asked by themselves only. This is a big weakness that kills innovative thinking." (On the other hand, this attitude also encourages focus on serious problems that can only be solved with years of diligent work.) Another added, "There's a distinction in the world between two kinds of science, which doesn't exist in science: between popular science and Science. In Hungary, there's a pretentious attitude toward popular science." There are also not many industrial activities that can attract scientific research: as one scientist said, "There is no engineer from a factory to knock at my door and tell me about a problem they need solved." Finally, despite the high public profile of science, there's not enough sharing of new scientific ideas.

The innovation system isn't well-developed.

"We're innovative but we don't have opportunities," one scientist lamented. There a "lack of openness to appropriately managing research... or modern methods of managing research." Hungarian scientists and agencies use very little benchmarking, aren't yet very familiar with intellectual property rights management. The top-down approach encourages political-decision making, stifles opportunities for young people.

Cross-disciplinary collaboration is difficult.

Research institutes and government programs aren't as well-geared to supporting cross-disciplinary research as the rest of the EU. There's not much collaboration between faculties in the technical sciences and arts: departments work separately, ignore each other at the best of times, and "publicly hate each other" at the worst. "This is a nightmare in most universities: departments," one scientist said.

STRENGTHS

The (Myth of the) Glorious Past.

Some of the most famous scientists and high-tech entrepreneurs of the 20th century (not to mention filmmakers, authors, musicians, and artists) were Hungarian-born. Despite a substantial national pride in this history, participants described this as a bit of a problem. As one said, "There's more of a tradition of saying that there's a tradition."

Native innovation.

There is innovative thinking in lots of areas that comes from the socialist-era need to deal with tricky situations or inadequate resources. "There's a heritage of backyard thinking," as one participant put it. More extreme ideas come out in an environment where lots of stuff doesn't work. "In the void we have here, you can experiment more; there's a level of institutional experimentation that we have here." But this is more of a survival technique, not something that's yet used to spur innovation in business. Very few people learn how to be successful within the system.

Global connections.

Hungary's large scientific diaspora includes people who still maintain close ties to their alma maters in Hungary, take on Hungarian graduate students, and return to Hungary for conferences and other events. As a result, in some fields there is "very intensive international collaboration," and scientists enjoy "access to first-class global networks."

High theory.

"We're good in sciences where we don't need a lot of facilities," one mathematician said, "only our ideas or theories." Hungarian education also tends to be pretty board, and specialization comes later than in other European countries (though this is less so now than 20 years ago). However, this can have a long-term payoff: "Its popular to say that Hungarian education is very theoretical," one scientists said, "but that's a strength: we're not focused on just practical issues, and in the longer run that's a great strength."