The Industry 4.0 National Technology Platform has been recently established under the leadership of the Institute for Computer Science and Control, Hungarian Academy of Sciences and with the participation of research institutions, education institutions and companies having premises in Hungary.
At the signing ceremony, Mr István Lepsényi, Secretary of State for Economy Development and Regulation, Ministry for National Economy, said: ‘We are witnessing the advent of the era of a new technological change, when the internet based economy is transforming the very basics of the production systems. This process requires from all actors of the economy, especially from the key firms in the priority sectors defined in the Government’s Irinyi Terv, from the Hungarian institutional innovation system as well as from the economic policy pursued by the Government, the progressive and well scheduled building of bridges between the physical and digital worlds, a special readiness for innovative adaptation, answers to challenges in a prompter way than any time before, including bold steps to be made concerning innovation.’
The Ministry for National Economy welcomes and supports the foundation of the Platform, as the strategic partner of its industrial and innovation policy program. It regards in its future successful activity the catalyser of attracting high added value research and development work to Hungary, an essential tool of preparing the SME sector for, and adapting it to the requirements of innovation and, finally, the key factor to contribute to the success of the national Ipar 4.0 programme.
Mr Laszlo Monostori academician and director of MTA SZTAKI underlined in his inaugural greeting that the theoretical and practical problems to be resolved are of such complexity that make the cooperation between the research and university spheres on the one hand and industrial companies on the other hand indispensable, both in the national and the international arena. He mentioned the example of the successful cooperation of MTA SZTAKI and the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, Germany dating back to many years, which was now – owing to a recent European initiative – extended by the inclusion of two faculties of the Budapest Universities of Technology and Economics, namely the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and the Faculty of Transportation Engineering and Vehicle Engineering.
Mr Monostori said: ‘The Ministry for National Economy has made a substantial step forward with its initiative to create the Industry 4.0 National Technological Platform’ and referred to the exceptional achievement of organising the foundation meeting within a few days. He emphasised the great number of the industrial firms who have signed the document and who ‘represent well the Hungarian small and large companies as well as the firms both in the production and in the forefront of the information and communication technology.’