Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA KRTK)

The Research Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA KRTK ) was established in its present form in January 2012, by merging three academic institutes: the Institute of Economics, the Institute of World Economics and the Institute of Regional Studies. The Centre is functioning with a staff of 190 persons, among them 110 researchers. The legal and administrative changes aim at establishing a modernised, effective research structure, able to cooperate, also as coordinators of great international projects, in international and domestic scientific networks as well as to carry out outstanding research activities. One of the basic preconditions for continuation and improvement of this high-level applied and theoretical research is the permanent investment in and the promotion of the existing human capacities. The optimal combination of internationally recognized senior researchers and ambitious young fellows has given rise to research teams with excellent scientific results. The merging process should lead to find synergy effects in our research capacities and in our main research focuses, too. Restructuring the framework and the functioning does not mean to change strategic objectives and research tasks determined in the foundation documents of the institutes. The Centre is a non-profit public-financed institution, so it has been keeping intact its core values of independent thinking and academic freedom. Obviously, the centre's strategic research focuses and research methods have to be scrutinized und updated according to the latest scientific trends and requirements in the international research scene. The research centre has to be competitive and innovative in a strong international environment. Besides research activities, it has to focus on widening and fostering its international research networks. A special activity is the recruitment and training of young researchers, as also strengthening ties with doctoral programmes of universities through involvement in teaching and supervising. Other task of the public-financed centres is the dissemination of its research results in the public in general. Also the libraries and the broad and high quality database of the centre must be mentioned as a special value added of the Research Centre for Economic and Regional Studies of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.  pixabay