🇭🇺 InnoNexus Innovációs Fórum 2026
The date of the event is October 14, 2026.
The InnoNexus Innovation Forum is an open platform for breakthrough ideas, creative energies, and future-shaping technologies. The forum opens its doors wide to technological advancement: it welcomes innovative concepts, research results, and project ideas from any engineering and technical field, breaking down rigid industry silos.
The primary objective of the event is to establish the personal and strategic connections that, by linking academia and the corporate sector, will enable participants to successfully apply for the latest domestic, corporate, and global research and development opportunities.
🎯 Funding Horizons and Innovation Sources
The forum focuses on financing programs that mobilize engineering and scientific research resources on both a local and global scale. Find the right level for your project:
🏛️ University and Internal Innovation Sources
- DE Innovation Fund (Proof of Concept – PoC): An internal fund financing the market validation, prototype development, and patenting of early-stage university research results.
- UD THETA Program (Theory to Action): An internal university resource specifically designed to support the phase-shift of engineering and technological ideas (from basic research to applied research/market entry).
- Intellectual Property (Patent) Support: An internal budget covering the costs of protecting university intellectual property (patent filing, obtaining protection).
🇭🇺 National (NKFIH) Research and Development Funds
- Focus Area Research and Innovation Projects: Large-scale projects funded by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFIH), linked to priority sectors of the national economy (e.g., digitalization, green transition, automotive industry).
- Support for Market-Driven R&D&I Projects: Grants aimed at direct market exploitation, where university research groups contribute as technology suppliers or partners.
- National Research Excellence Program (NKKP): A funding source for applied research and independent projects of young researchers.
- Scientific Patronage Grant: Support for international conference participation, domestic conference organization, and the international dissemination (publication) of research results.
🇪🇺 Structural Funds (GINOP Plus) – Corporate-University Collaborations
- GINOP Plus 2.1.1 (Support for Corporate R&D&I Activities): Large-scale consortium grants where local/regional companies utilize the research capacity of the Faculty of Engineering (e.g., Automotive Lab, materials science base) as partners.
- GINOP Plus 2.1.3 (Support for the Innovation Capacity of SMEs): Smaller-scale innovation vouchers and projects where the Faculty's researchers assist the SME sector as experts, consultants, or validation partners.
🌐 International and Direct European Union Funds
- Horizon Europe – Pillar II: Direct funding from Brussels, particularly in the following clusters:
- Cluster 4: Digital, Industry and Space (e.g., advanced manufacturing technologies, materials).
- Cluster 5: Climate, Energy and Mobility (e.g., battery technologies, e-mobility, smart grids).
- EIT (European Institute of Innovation and Technology) Funds: Grants specifically issued by the EIT Manufacturing and EIT Digital Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs), connecting education and industrial innovation.
- Interreg Programs (Central Europe / Danube Region): Cross-border regional, infrastructural, and technology transfer projects.
🏢 Direct Industrial Mandates and Corporate Funds
- Corporate Target Grants and R&D Mandates: Not classic state grants, but specific research/engineering tasks and strategic framework contracts directly announced by major companies in the region (e.g., BMW, Schaeffler, Continental, Diehl).
🌏 Global Strategic Programs
- Shanghai Sci-tech Co-research Program: A call for proposals aimed at developing the international research environment in Shanghai, targeting high-value basic research and pioneering technologies (continuous submission until December 31, 2026).
- China–Hungary Joint Laboratory Project: An open platform for advanced bilateral discussions and collaboration in key priority areas (agriculture and food industry, life and health sciences, energy transition, digitalization).
- Future Horizons (iUNRC): A new round of iUNRC project calls is expected this December. The forum provides an excellent platform to prepare project proposals and recommendations for the iUNRC 2026 Presidential Roundtable Forum.
⏱️ Pitch Your Idea! – Presentation Format and Process
There is no room for monotonous, endless slide decks here. Dynamism, fast-paced thinking, and focusing on the essentials will dominate the Faculty's large display screens:
- 5-Minute Flash Presentation: Each applicant has exactly 5 minutes to present their engineering project proposal, vision, and the market or scientific potential within the concept.
- Simplified, Single-Page Submission: We do not request long presentation files. Applicants are only required to submit a single, single-page, high-resolution PDF document that presents the idea in a poster-like format, using diagrams and highlighting the essential parts according to the provided official template.
🤖 Co-located Event: AMIRA 2026
Organized in parallel with the InnoNexus Forum, the AMIRA 2026 (Autonomous Machines and Intelligent Robotics Applications) international scientific conference will take place. This overlap raises the event's technological inspiration to an even higher level, providing direct access to the latest international trends in autonomous machines and intelligent robotics.
Invited participants:
- Al-Quds University (AQU) (Palesztina)
- Ariel University (Izrael)
- Ausztrál egyetemi kapcsolat
- Babeș-Bolyai University
- Carleton Egyetem
- Chongqing University
- Chuo University (Japán)
- Czestochowa University of Technology
- Erciyes University
- ÉTS, Montréal - École de technologie supérieure
- Kanadai egyetem
- Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) (Litvánia)
- Lawrence Technological University (LTU) (USA)
- Lengyel egyetemi kapcsolat
- Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU)
- McGill University, Montréal
- Memorial University of Newfoundland
- Nagy-Britanniai egyetemi kapcsolat
- Poznan University of Technology
- Rzeszow University of Technology
- Shanghai Dianji University
- Shanghai Polytechnic University
- U15 Group of Canadian Research Universities
- University of Ottawa
- University of Rijeka
- University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ)
- Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), India
- Vishwakarma Institute of Technology (VIT)
- Vishwakarma University (VU) (Pune, India)
- Wrocław University of Science and Technology
Register now, bring your innovative idea from any engineering field in a single PDF, build global connections, and shape the future at the InnoNexus Forum!
Draft Program:
10:00 - 12:00 Faculty of Engineering– Presentations on innovation-related topics
12:00 - 13:00 Faculty of Engineering, Aula, Ground Floor – Poster exhibition
13:00 - 14:00 Lunch
14:00 - 15:00 Consultations/meetings
18:00 Evening reception