On 15 April 2026, the Zachor Foundation for Social Remembrance, together with HÉTFA Research Institute and their international consortium partners, will host the DECONSTRUCT International Stakeholder Event in Budapest. The event will take place at Európa Pont (Lövőház u. 35., Budapest, 1024, Hungary) between 9:00 and 14:00, with the main programme running from 9:00 to 13:00, followed by networking. The event will be held in English with simultaneous translation. 

Funded by the European Union’s CERV-2023-EQUAL programme (Project No. 101144756), the DECONSTRUCT project addresses the growing challenge of Holocaust distortion—an increasingly widespread phenomenon across digital and public spaces. The consortium developed research findings, digital educational tools, and awareness materials to support educators, students, and decision-makers in recognising and countering disinformation and distortion. HÉTFA participates in the project as a partner, contributing to research, educational content development, and dissemination activities.

The half-day event will present the project’s key results and foster dialogue among experts and practitioners. The programme features a keynote by Dr. Kathrin Meyer, former General Secretary of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), two panel discussions on international good practices and classroom experiences, as well as a session showcasing the project’s educational resources. The event will conclude with networking opportunities.

The detailed agenda is available in the attachment. If the event has sparked your interest, you can register here. For further information, please contact: zachor@zachor.hu, visit the project website or follow our updates on Facebook and Instagram.

This is the first representative public survey to examine the social perception of folk culture and folk art, as well as related consumption habits in Hungary; the 2026 Report presents the results of this survey in its first chapter. As a continuation of the 2025 Report, the 2026 Report includes an assessment of the impact of the Sándor Csoóri Program, this time focusing on Hungarian folk art communities beyond the border in Upper Hungary, Transylvania, Subcarpathia, and Vojvodina. The volume focuses first on the examination of folk crafts among the various fields of folk art. It examines the folk craft community and the operational and funding structures of its organizations. It places special emphasis on the issue of knowledge transfer in folk crafts, which simultaneously affects education, professional prestige, market success, and career planning.

More information on the 2026 Hungarian Folk Art Report and the full publication can be accessed here.

🌍Why the Methodology Matters

Across Europe, the care sector faces multiple challenges: workforce shortages, increasing demand for long-term care, limited training opportunities, and the growing need for digital and green skills. CARES was created to respond to these issues by empowering both formal and informal caregivers to adapt, learn, and thrive.

The Training Methodology is the first tangible step in building that capacity. It defines how the project’s training, mentoring, and self-learning activities will be structured by providing a shared foundation for all educational materials, online modules, and local pilot sessions. This methodology will ensure that our learning tools are coherent, inclusive, and adaptable to real-life challenges in the care sector. It’s not only about upskilling, but also about valuing the human side of care, mental health, resilience, and sustainability.

🧩 What the Methodology Will Contain

The CARES Training Methodology will integrate innovative and non-formal learning formats, including micro-learning, and self-learning by ensuring accessibility for caregivers working in different environments and schedules. The content will cover three interconnected thematic pillars:

1. Digital Readiness in Care
2. Sustainability and Green Practices in Care
3. Well-being and Mental Health for Caregivers

Each module will include short, actionable learning units, case studies, and examples by ensuring that the materials reflect diverse realities and needs across Europe. Also, the consortium is aligning pedagogical principles with the European Care Strategy, the European Pillar of Social Rights, and the Green and Digital Transition priorities of the EU. These steps will lead to the first implementation phase of the CARES capacity-building programme, supporting hundreds of caregivers to learn, adapt, and grow through innovative, accessible education.

GO2 Sustainable Urban Planning Organization is pleased to announce the Call for Participation for the 3^rd Training School, scheduled to take place on September 25th – 26th, 2024 in Tirana, Albania. The topic of the training school is the following: OPEN SCIENCE · OPEN DATA
Maximising the impact of research results. Exploitation and valorization of research results. The 2-day event is part of the V4+WB RMA Network Plus project led by HETFA Research Institute and supported by the International Visegrad Fund.

Application deadline: August 21^st, 2024 (Please complete the application form: https://forms.gle/qFeQ1TDCEdLu8rvm7

Results of the selection procedure: August 26^th, 2024

Training dates: September 25^th – 26^th, 2024

Location of the training: Tirana, Albania (Venue to be announced)

About the event:

Research management and administration (RMA) is becoming recognized as a profession around the world. This emerging profession provides a balance between promoting/facilitating the needs of institutions to meet their organizational objectives and the ability of academics to dedicate more time to science and research results. Well-trained research managers bring added value and significantly contribute to the organization’s overall success at universities, institutions, agencies and NGOs. The V4+WB RMA NETWORK initiative explores the broad scope of the multi-faceted profession of research management. The 3^rd Training School in Tirana under the auspices of GO2ALBANIA would focus on “Maximizing the impact of research results, exploitation and valorization of research results, open science and open access”. Participants can further develop their understanding on:

• Open science: concept and policy
• Open Science: practices and enablers
• Open Science and Open Access: main differences and commonalities
• Data sharing benefits and challenges
• Data sharing solutions and networks
• Examples of data sharing (success and failure)
• Data sharing challenges (ethical, legal, technical)
• The role of Open Science in research valorization

This V4+WB RMA event also would provide plenty of opportunities for team building and networking. Participants will have the opportunity to network with peers and establish long-term collaborations within the region.

Trainer: Dr. Lisa Cowey, Innovation Management, Oxford, UK 

Target group: Research Managers and Administrators (RMAs) including funding and legal advisors, finance managers, research support professionals, innovation managers, technology transfer professionals, professionals working on the interface of science, researchers in different institutions, based in Visegrad Group and WB countries.

Note: Attendance is free of charge, but subject to selection procedure. GO2Albania will support up to 15 participants from partner countries Visegrad 4 (Hungary, Czechia, Slovakia, Poland) and WB (Albania, Bosnia & Hercegovina, Serbia), by covering the costs of travel and accommodation. All applicants who exceed the selection list are welcome to participate by covering their own travel and accommodation costs. All participants are responsible to make their own travel and accommodation arrangements.

Selection criteria:

Professional Background: Preference will be given to RMAs leading and coordinating research support offices, researchers,

Experience: Experienced candidates with significant involvement in research support activities, conducting research, pre and post-award project engagement, communication and dissemination, impact evaluation will be prioritized.

Geographical Representation: Visegrad Group (V4) countries and Western Balkans (WB) countries

Diversity: Preference will be given to applicants from diverse backgrounds, including different academic disciplines, types of institutions, and geographical locations within the eligible regions

Key information:

Application deadline: August 21^st, 2024 (Please complete the application form: https://forms.gle/qFeQ1TDCEdLu8rvm7

Results of the selection procedure: August 26^th, 2024

Training dates: September 25^th – 26^th, 2024

Location of the training: Tirana, Albania (Venue to be announced)

Agenda: To be announced

For more information, contact GO2Albania: go2albania.org@gmail.com

By choosing to become a project ambassador, you will contribute to raising awareness on the importance of this new venture of management and be part to the innovation of management as we know it, by partaking in different dissemination activities. In exchange, you and your company will have the possibility to become involved with the project and will also have access to several benefits, only for few selected companies.

Benefits for the Net0Ambassadors:

– Early access to closed number events around Europe and webinars of the Net0Manager project and webinars on topics relevant to net-o management, sustainability in business, investment opportunities

– You will have the possibility to participate as guest speaker during project related webinars and regional events in the EU

– Early birds access to the Net0Manager training modules

– Possibility to be featured on the project’s website and social media, giving visibility to you and your company

– Possibility to be featured on Net0Manager’s bi-yearly press releases

If this sounds interesting, get in touch with us! You can reach us at learn@net0manager.eu

The 4th Monitoring Report assesses the processes of 2019 and 2020. The report aims to examine the four pillars of sustainability (human, social, environmental and economic resources) and to assess the progress towards the objectives set by analysing current state of national capacities and opportunities.

Based on the 16 key indicators, it is clear that, although there have been many positive changes since the previous Monitoring Report, the pandemic has reduced the rate of improvement for many indicators and in some cases even reduced the value of the indicator. Of the 16 indicators, 9 scored below average or poor, which suggests that the state of sustainability in Hungary remains bad. The state of sustainability has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in several ways, thus the economic, social and environmental impacts of the pandemic were assessed as well.

The following policy recommendations were proposed:

• Improvement of high level policy commitment to sustainability;
• Stimulation of population policy;
• Promotion of health conscious behaviours;
• Improvement of quality education;
• Economic stability;
• Natural resource productivity and development of the circular economy;
• Mitigation of climate change;
• Protection of biodiversity
• Water management.

The report is available on the following link (in Hungarian).

COST is the longest-running European framework supporting trans-national cooperation among researchers, engineers and scholars across Europe. The COST Targeted Network EUGAIN was kicked offin October 2020 and will run for four years.

In order to tackle the problem that women are underrepresented in Informatics (Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Computing, ICT) at all levels, from undergraduate and graduate studies to participation and leadership in academia and industry, working groups of the Action were formed along these levels. Moreover, EUGAIN takes special attention to the cooperation with industry and society, but also to dissemination activities.

The first Management Committee Meeting – as the kick-off of the Action – was very interactive and inspirational, since around 70 people attended from 37 different COST countries as Management Committee members. Beside presenting the strategy plan for the upcoming four years, the main aim of the meeting was to approve the proposed members of the Core Group, who are responsible for the coordination of the Action. Through the formation of the group, Fanni Bobák, Senior International Expert of HETFA was elected Co-Chair of Working Group 4.

The horizontal Working Group 4 focuses on the cooperation of Industry and Society. Fanni Bobák with the well-experienced Co-Chair, Lynda Hardman, will work on the creation of a sustainable network for academic, commercial and societal partners working on the field. Lynda – Manager of Research & Strategy and a member of the Human-Centered Data Analytics research group at the Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) in Amsterdam, The Netherlands – was former president of Informatics Europe and founder of Women in Informatics Research and Education working group, from which EUGAIN was actually born.

HETFA is especially committed to contribute to the success of this network by bringing project and research related experiences, mainly from ifempower.

The next meeting of the core group jointly with the establishment of four cross-cutting groups (science communication, STSM (short-term scientific mission) coordinator, ITC Conference Grant and Training Schools Coordinator) will be held in February 2021. The meeting will provide opportunity to agree on the topics and priorities of the upcoming STSMs and training schools.

HETFA experts use a variety of data collected from about 200 NUTS3 (county level) regions in 10 countries to explore the spatial patterns of the spread of the epidemic, present the most affected areas and analyse the underlying causes. In the analyses, a special attention is paid to areas of the Carpathian Basin inhabited by Hungarians.

Following our first update on the weekly reports, now we share the most recent findings of our analyses:

The number of infected people is growing at an unprecedented rate in Hungary and throughout Central and Eastern Europe: 65,000 new cases were registered in the region last week (week of 28 September), bringing the number of confirmed cases to almost half a million. Despite comparisons between countries and regions are hampered by differing registration protocols and testing capacities (several countries in the region have serious problems in this area), the main territorial trends are still visible. In Romania and Ukraine, the epidemic has been spreading almost uncontrollably for months, while the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia have recently erupted, while other countries in the region (Poland, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia) are also on the rise. The capitals are affected the most: Prague, Bucharest, Vienna, Budapest, Ljubljana or Bratislava are all one of the most infected regions in their countries. Concerning the areas inhabited by Hungarians, Transcarpathia and Southern Transylvania are in the worst situation. Overall, the area’s infestation is increasing greatly during the current period, and the second wave is already much more severe than the first was.

The current situation at a glance

]]> https://hetfa.eu/2020/09/employment-on-roller-coaster-in-hungary-analysis-of-current-trends-by-hetfa/ Wed, 02 Sep 2020 10:22:41 +0000 https://hetfa.eu/?p=7930 Continuing our series of analyses on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Hungary, HETFA colleagues now put the dramatically changing trends of labour market under the spotlight. The experts of the HETFA Research Institute examined the territorial and sectoral patterns of employment change on the basis of the company headcount data submitted to the National Tax and Customs Administration of Hungary (NAV) in the recent months. The analysis focused on the districts (járások) of Hungary, based on the reformed public administration system introduced in 2013.

Below you can read a short summary of the main conclusions and you can access the full-length analysis in Hungarian here.

Although the expansion of domestic employment finally restarted in June after the spring relapse due to the epidemic, there are big differences between the individual sectors and regions in terms of how widely and how fast the recovery started. In more developed areas and resort areas, staff reductions and then recovery were faster than in less developed districts. The areas most exposed to tourism experienced very severe employment surges in the first half of the year.

Statistics show that there were at least 212,000 jobs lost between February and May this year, most probably due to the employment consequences of the coronavirus. The vast majority of lost jobs were lost in enterprises, the number of employees in the public sector decreased by almost 4,000, in non-profit organizations by 3,000, while the number of public employees (= people having sought for temporary jobs after long unemployed status) fell by 8,000 between February and May.

Changes in the number of employees in sectors of the national economy, compared to February 2020 (edited by HETFA)

Source: Céginformáció Ltd. and NAV data

At the beginning of 2020, a strong economic growth (3-4%) was predicted by various forecasts, that could have resulted in a rise of the employment rate with a good few tens of thousands people,  employed in May  in a COVID-free period, compared to the previous year. The fact that 242,000 less people will be employed in 2020 than in May last year, still underestimates the decline in employment experienced due to the epidemic.

As a conclusion the analysis states that the shifts in the employment rate show similar patterns during the epidemic regardless the sector, size and area: those who reacted the fastest with downsizing the workforce start to recover already by June, while those who started cut backs slower will join the job creation turn only later. For the time being, employment processes reflect the course of the 2007 crisis, but in an accelerated form, highlighting the prominent role of tourism in recession, where the decline and subsequent recovery of the sector could put the areas involved in domestic tourism on a roller coaster. As employment growth, which started in the summer, seems to be supported by strong seasonal conditions (e.g. tourism, summer agricultural work), the labour market of Hungary cannot breathe a sigh of relief yet, as autumn can bring about some difficult months, especially if new restrictions may be introduced due to the second wave of the epidemic.

The analysis was prepared by Gábor Balás, Luca Koltai, Hajnalka Lőcsei and Tamás Szabó (HETFA Research Institute)