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A new ERA for Research and Innovation (continuation of debate)
In the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, exploiting Europe’s potential for research and innovation is a priority. Developing new innovations is essential for the EU's economic recovery and for increasing Europe's competitiveness. As a result of the pandemic, researchers have faced a number of challenges, their situation has become precarious, they are experiencing more difficult working conditions, the pandemic situation has been an obstacle to the free movement of researchers, the exchange of knowledge technologies between Member States. For this reason, one of the important elements of the Hungarian government's economic protection action plan is to support the employment of highly qualified specialists in the research and development sector, promoting the long-term employment of tens of thousands of workers in the sector, maintaining wages, avoiding redundancies and creating new jobs. Last year, the wage subsidy for research, development and innovation contributed HUF 17 billion to keep nearly 23,000 professionals in work. The wage subsidy program relaunched in January this year contributed to the retention of more than 16 thousand highly qualified professionals with a total of HUF 12 billion. It is important that, by strengthening the European Research Area and widening participation, EU Member States can receive greater financial support in order to make optimal use of their national research and innovation potential. European small and medium-sized enterprises should be able to directly apply the European Research Area tools across all sectors, thus strengthening long-term strategic cooperation between academia and business.