Plate Nº 37 · recorded October 10, 2026
Science Policy & FundingReported finding
Hungary moves to overhaul universities blocked from Horizon Europe
Hungary has begun drafting governance reforms for universities the European Commission has excluded from the Horizon Europe research funding programme, Science|Business reports.
By Marcus Bennett3 min read501 words
In brief
- Hungary has begun a process to overhaul governance models of universities banned from Horizon Europe.
- Horizon Europe, the EU's flagship research programme, runs from 2021 to 2027 with a budget of about €95.5 billion.
- Hungary passed the 'lex CEU' law in 2017, prompting the Central European University to relocate to Vienna in 2018.
- The European Commission referred Hungary to the Court of Justice of the European Union in 2021 over its treatment of foreign-funded NGOs.
Hungary has begun a process to overhaul the governance models of universities that lost access to the European Union's Horizon Europe research funding programme, Science|Business reported.
The reform targets the institutional structures the European Commission has excluded from the EU's main research and innovation fund, which carries a budget of about €95.5 billion for 2021–2027.
What does "university models" mean here?
The phrase refers to how a university is funded, governed, and accredited, not to its academic departments or researchers. The European Commission can exclude specific legal entities from EU funding when their governance fails to meet conditions in EU law.
Under Horizon Europe rules, applicants must follow the European Code of Practice for Research Integrity and respect EU values. The Commission can also bar entities whose home-country arrangements conflict with EU treaties.
What triggered the dispute?
Hungary passed a law in 2017 that tightened conditions for universities from outside the European Economic Area. Critics dubbed the law "lex CEU" because it most directly affected the Central European University. CEU relocated most of its operations to Vienna in 2018.
The conflict widened after 2021, when the European Commission referred Hungary to the Court of Justice of the European Union over its treatment of foreign-funded NGOs. The Horizon Europe exclusions followed.
What does Hungary's move actually change?
The Hungarian government has not yet released the full proposal. Science|Business's headline confirms the government has begun drafting changes but does not name the universities affected, the new governance rules, or the timeline for adoption.
Reader questions remain open:
- Which universities does the overhaul target?
- What new governance conditions will Hungary propose?
- Will the European Commission accept the revised models as compliant with EU law?
- How will researchers at affected institutions continue their work in the meantime?
Why this matters for scientists
Hungarian researchers excluded from Horizon Europe cannot apply as lead institutions for grants. Individual researchers may still join projects through partner institutions in other EU member states, but doctoral training, post-doctoral fellowships, and large collaborative grants become harder to secure.
Major Hungarian research universities include:
- University of Szeged
- Budapest University of Technology and Economics
- Eötvös Loránd University
If any of these fall under the affected models, the practical impact on Hungarian science will be significant.
What to watch next
Two signals will clarify the scope of the reform:
- The European Research Executive Agency's exclusion list, which names specific legal entities barred from Horizon Europe
- The Hungarian government's published draft legislation
Researchers, university administrators, and EU policy observers should track both before drawing conclusions about how far the overhaul reaches.
The headline announcement opens a negotiation rather than closes one. Hungary's draft must still survive domestic parliamentary approval, and Brussels must still decide whether the new governance models satisfy EU law. Past rounds in this dispute, from the 2017 "lex CEU" law to the 2021 CJEU referral, show the gap between Budapest and the Commission can take years to resolve.
via Google News: Science Funding (Source)
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