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Centres of Excellence in Hungary


Collegium Budapest (CB)
an Institute for Advanced Study and a Centre of Excellence

Szentháromság utca 2
H - 1014 Budapest
Tel.: 0036-1-224 83 00
Fax 0036-1-224 83 10
e-mail: collegium.budapest@colbud.hu
internet: www.colbud.hu
Rector: Dr. Gábor Klaniczay
Permanent Fellows: Dr. János Kornai, Dr. Eörs Szathmáry
Secretary: Fred Girod


Collegium Budapest began its activities in 1992. Based on International funding, which includes contributions from seven European countries and several private foundations, it is the first Institute for Advanced Study in CEE, hosting humanities, social and natural sciences. It aimed at rebuilding the international contacts of scholars and academic institutions of this region by offering a common temporary work place for outstanding scholars from the West and the former East.

Adapting the Princeton and Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin model, CB represents a new type of institute, different both from universities and specialised research institutes. Its main attraction is to offer its fellows temporary liberation from their administrative and teaching obligations and allow them to fully concentrate on their chosen research plan. The typical Fellowship is awarded for an individual project lasting for an academic year (10 months) or a part of it. All disciplines are eligible from the social sciences, humanities, and theoretical natural sciences. The year-long common activities (weekly fellow seminars and frequent public lectures and workshops) with this multidisciplinary community stimulate methodological enrichment. The output of past fellows has proved that this context can make academic production very efficient. Thematic Focus Groups are also eligible, with a group of Fellows working on a common research topic, and organising larger workshops. These groups are frequently - although not exclusively - convened by the three Permanent Fellows of CB, representing its three major areas of specialisation: Gábor Klaniczay (history and humanities), János Kornai (social science, post-socialist transition), and Eörs Szathmáry (theoretical biology). Focus Groups also involve part-time Budapest (Associate) Fellows, who provide a link to the local academic community. Junior (pre- or post-doctoral) Fellowships are also offered, principally for young talents from CEE.

In ten years CB has emerged as a major international academic centre and as a model of a new European academic co-operation. It generated many innovative individual and institutional projects of co-operation between Western scholars and those from this region. CB offers the local academic surroundings on internationally active academic centre of precious networks and high-standard research. The continuos presence of such a prestigous international academic centre in Budapest provides a standing opportunity for immediate access to the elite networks of international academic life, and ultimately contributes to making Budapest an organisational centre for various future projects as well. Collegium Budapest also provides a link to the European Commission for Hungarian academics by organising European events and bringing leading administrators and politicans to Hungary, offering them the forum of a distinguished audience.

In 2000 Collegium Budapest was succesful in receiving a significant three-year grant from the EC DG Research, supporting "Centres of Excellence" in the region. Collegium Budapest was ranked third among the 180 applicants for the call with the project "A Bridge for Scholarship between East and West (Local Talent - Regional Tradition - European Quality - Global Connection) Acronym: BRIDGE". The support allows the Collegium to increase the number of fellows from 20 to 30 and enables the institute to strengthen the thematic fields in a) the transition, b) theoretical biology, and c) comparative social sciences to develop the institute to its ideal size in order to constitute an optimally balanced multidisciplinary community. In the academic years 2000/2001 and 2001/2002, each year 20 scholars from EU-member states and accession countries spent between three weeks and 10 months with the support "Centres of Excellence" at the institute. For the coming year 2002/03, starting this October, at least 10 scholars, most of them coming for 10 months, will do their research at the Collegium. All invited scholars presented their research to an interested scholarly community in an open so-called fellow-seminar, they participated in several workshops organized at the Collegium, and many of them were invited for guest lectures at the universities in Budapest, but also in other Hungarian universities and in neighboring countries.

Collegium Budapest sent two expressions of interest to the European Commission for FP6, and is a possible partner in 5 other integrated projects or networks of excellence, expressed by institutions from Austria, France, Germany, and Switzerland.



Full title of project:

A Bridge for Scholarship between East and West (Local Talent - Regional Tradition - European Quality - Global Connection) Acronym: BRIDGE

Information:

Collegium Budapest, Institute for Advanced Study

Szentháromság utca 2
H - 1014 Budapest
Tel.: 0036-1-224 83 00
Fax 0036-1-224 83 10
e-mail: collegium.budapest@colbud.hu
internet: www.colbud.hu
Rector: Dr. Gábor Klaniczay
Permanent Fellows: Dr. János Kornai, Dr. Eörs Szathmáry
Secretary: Fred Girod

Proposers:

Individual project (no consorcium)

Duration:

3 years (2000-2003)

Programme:

Specific research and technological development (RTD) programme "Confirming the International Role of Community Research" INCO2 1998-2002/ FP5

Programme call: Support for Centres of Excellence in Candidate Countries/ Accompanying Measures ICFP599A1AM03

Funding:

1.100 000 EURO

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