Innovation Management Doctoral School established at Óbuda University

Óbuda University contributes to strengthening the competitiveness of Hungary by developing new interdisciplinary bachelor's and master's programmes and specialisations in the fields of digitalisation, health industry and green economy, which is now also strengthened by the new doctoral school, emphasised Prof. Dr. Levente Kovács on the occasion of the establishment of the fourth doctoral school of Óbuda University.

Dr. Péter Galambos, Deputy Director General of the University Research and Innovation Center (EKIK) said that within the Óbuda University, EKIK is the engine of innovation, combining all the benefits that innovation can gain from higher education and industry at university level. "Our goal remains to build a system that is accessible to all our university citizens, easy to use and that provides full innovation management support. The search for investors and proposals, legal support for start-ups, professional mentoring, and strengthening the innovation mindset in students will continue," added the Deputy Director General of the EKIK.

Dr. János Pakucs, President of the Hungarian Innovation Association, spoke about the essence of innovation, the importance of motivation and the process of development from idea to implementation. Addressing the students applying for the competition, he said that they should have the courage to break through the walls and with hard work they could even surpass their masters. He also stressed the importance of the newly established doctoral school.

Prof. Dr. László Gulácsi, VVice Rector for Research and Head of the Doctoral School, announced that the Innovation Management Doctoral School at Óbuda University has passed the accreditation procedure, is now open and is waiting for students. With its egalitarian programme, the doctoral programme offers students from all disciplines the opportunity to acquire innovation management knowledge at doctoral level, which is the basis for the market success of innovations. The ÓU contributes to strengthening the competitiveness of Hungary by developing new interdisciplinary bachelor and master programmes and specialisations. IMDI's training programme, in cooperation with EKIK will support the successful industrial exploitation of university innovations. The training facilitates the economic and social utilisation of industrial-university cooperation resulting from investments, and the transfer of university research results. "It is for these reasons, among others, that we consider it important and significant that Óbuda University was the first doctoral school in Hungary to establish a doctoral school in Innovation Management," added the head of the doctoral school.

Dr. István Szabó, Vice President of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office, emphasized in his presentation on the support system and the areas to be developed: in recent years the concept of innovation has exploded in the Hungarian economic thinking. However, its impact is not yet fully visible. He said that currently only a fraction of innovative companies cooperate with universities and research institutes. So far, few have recognised the huge potential of such cooperation. Óbuda University is a good example of how to embrace innovation and support young talent with scientific rigour.

Dr. Gábor Fazekas from the National Institute of Medical Rehabilitation gave a presentation on the functioning and importance of the Human Kinesiology Laboratory at the Institute.

Antal Bejczy Center for Intelligent Robotics (IROB) - Dr. Péter Galambos, Director. Physiological Controls Research Center (PhysCon) - Dr. Dániel András Drexler, Director. BioTech Research Center (BRC) - Prof. Dr. Miklós Kozlovszky, Director. Health Economics Research Center (HECON) - Dr. Zsombor Zrubka, Director. Precision Farming Research Center (Prec_G) - Dr. Márta Alexy.

The Óbuda University has launched its Proof of Concept (PoC) programme for the third time. Csaba Árendás, Senior Innovation Manager, explained that the aim of the programme is to support the realisation of new ideas and product proposals generated with the participation of university citizens throughout the entire innovation process, from idea to market. This spring, nine teams were awarded prizes for mentoring or business coaching to help them realise their projects. Each project received up to HUF 10 million in funding.

The lucky chosen ones:

Bil-GO - team leader: Tamás Zsludov, mentor, business coach: József Berecz

Birdwatcher - team leader: Márta Alexy, business mentor, coach: Csaba Árendás

Eco Smart Blocks - team leader: Beáta Bus, business mentor, coach: Zsuzsa Oláh

Lumen - team leader: Levente Ábrahám, business mentor, coach: Zsuzsa Oláh

Microscope stand - team leader: Sándor Burián, business mentor: Prof. Dr. Miklós Kozlovszky

OUBot - team leader: Miklós Vincze, business mentor, coach: Prof. Dr. Miklós Kozlovszky

Szalmapaplan - team leader: Tímea Stverteczky, business mentor, coach: Csaba Árendás

Green Energy Island - team leader: Dr. Péter Kádár, business mentor, coach: József Berecz

SensOrnitholgy - team leader: Krisztián Klucsik, business mentor, coach: József Berecz

The presentations at the University Innovation Day covered a wide range of topics related to the strategic research of the institution, mainly the latest developments in the field of smart engineering. Two of the University's recently elected Professors of Excellence, Prof. Dr. Amir H. Gandomi and Prof. Dr. Andrea De Gaetano, presented papers on the latest developments in the field of advanced engineering.

The application is co-funded by the Óbuda University  and the project "Development of the Innovation Ecosystem at the Óbuda University", project number 2019-1.2.1-EGYETEMI-ÖKO-2019-00017.