The Budapest Institute expresses its solidarity with the Hungarian Academy of Sciences

13/09/2018

The Budapest Institute expresses its full solidarity with our colleagues employed by the research institutes of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and especially the Institute of Economics.

The weekly Figyelő published an article sprinkled with malicious half-truths about individual social scientists of the Academy in June, which was followed by the announcement of government plans to dismember the Academy and move its independent institutes under direct government controll. In a next step state secretary Palkovits has recently announced that the Institute of Economics will be closed down while other institutes will be merged or integrated into universities (already controlled by government commissars). We believe that independent research free of government pressure is one of the most important European values. Critical, high quality, original research can only strive in independent scientific institutions, and without such research, evidence-informed, welfare-enhancing policies have little chance to emerge.