The Science & Innovation Park of the Széchenyi István University of Győr was inaugurated in a ceremony on the 7th of November at the former site of a biscuit and wafer factory, located only 500 metres from the central campus. An emblematic industrial landmark of the city, the “cubic building” will become a bastion of the dynamically developing university innovation ecosystem, where the institution will provide space for higher education, industry collaborations, new research & development projects, and the forum for the implementation of their respective innovative ideas.
Széchenyi István University has created its Győr Science & Innovation Park with the support of a 6 billion 766 million HUF grant from the European Union, awarded under the GINOP-2.3.1-20-2020-00005 project. The aim of the investment is to further strengthen the links between the university and the region’s economic actors, to provide an incubation environment for new research & development projects, and to further expand the opportunities for talent management. The park is intended to stimulate the development of the region by building on the university’s core research areas. In the first phase of the project, the former biscuit factory „cube” building has been converted and renovated with half of the 3,860 square metres of space to be used for educational purposes, one third for R&D offices of various partner companies, and the remaining area available for professional workshops, events, and academic lectures.
„Our Innovation Park will further strengthen the university’s impact on the labour market. It will also contribute to providing more opportunities for young people, especially those preparing for technical and IT careers, allowing them to integrate into the workforce via start-ups, spinoffs, and multinational companies.
„By extension, the park will also be a platform for connecting the domestic SME sector and large companies,” said Dr Bálint Filep, President of Széchenyi István University, during the ceremony.
In his speech, he looked back on more than half a century of the institution’s history and outlined the path of its development, the latest stage of which is the opening of the Innovation Park.
“The quality of the work carried out at our university is illustrated by the fact that we are now included in the most prestigious international rankings, such as the QS World and European rankings as well as the Times Higher Education world ranking, which has a very strict measure of academic performance of which ranks our institution in the top five per cent of universities worldwide. We are confident that, through the cooperation and collaboration between companies setting up in the park and the university, we will be able to further improve our ranking positions,” he said. The President thanked the government for supporting their efforts, as well as corporate partners, collaborating organisations, and university academic staff and employees who have also contributed significantly to the dynamic development of the institution.
In his welcome speech, Minister of Culture and Innovation János Csák underlined that the government’s goal is for Hungary to be among the top ten countries in the world in terms of innovation by 2040. To this end, he said, the government spends around 300 billion HUF a year on innovation, with 2,100 billion HUF in the last seven years alone. He added that the Neumann János programme was also launched recently to help link universities, research institutions, businesses, and financial organisations together in order to strengthen the economy. The minister said he saw Széchenyi István University as a leading institutional example and an inspiration for others because it was young enough to be dynamic, old enough to have tradition, and close enough to companies to more easily feel the market’s expectations.
He said, „Győr is not a rural city, but a centre between Vienna, Budapest and Bratislava.”
The minister also spoke of the need to focus on specific project themes – such as digitalisation, the green transformation, and healthcare – where we [Szechenyi University and Hungary] have a strong tradition and where there is a real demand for such technologies and solutions in the world.
The exterior of the renewed building will be able to be distinguished by its unique architectural solution of LED mesh. Tamás Kolossváry, Head of the Győr Innovation Park, reported on the activities starting inside. He said that the ground floor will host an event space and the business development office of the National Association of Entrepreneurs and Employers (VOSZ), as well as the Green Traffic Cloud project office – to be established jointly by the university, the university foundation, and the Humda Mobility Development Agency. “The building’s next level will hold the Bosch R&D site in Győr, Hungary, where the development of smart mobility products and services will be carried out in close cooperation with the competence centres and faculties of the university,” he said. The second, third and fourth floors will be home to the university’s Design faculty, and the Design Campus Competence Centre.
He went on to explain that Audi Hungaria Zrt., which operates in close partnership with the university, will be located on the 5th or top floor of the building, where engineers and students will develop the hardware and software functions of the vehicles of the future. “It will also house the development base of Huawei, and Telekom, in addition to Rotors & Cams, a leading developer of digital and telecommunications technologies and a leader in drone technology. On the academic side, joint competence development projects will have support provided to them by colleagues from the Centre for Digital Development,” he said.. Lastly Tamás Kolossváry added, „preparations are already underway for two additional phases of the park, which will further expand the opportunities for collaboration between higher education and industry.”
In his speech, Prof. Dr. Csaba Dézsi, Mayor of Győr, said „the Széchenyi István University, Audi Hungaria, and the city of Győr live in a state of exemplary symbiosis, which illustrates that if we work together, we can achieve a lot.” He continued by saying „the success of our city is not based on just factories, buildings, or shops, but on the knowledge, diligence, talent, and hard work of the people who live here. And that our economic success is what allows the health, culture and many others of our community to flourish. As a citizen of Győr, it is a great experience to witness that the once legendary biscuit factory can now live onward by serving the production of knowledge and creativity. I hope that this building, not only materially but also intellectually, will continue to serve as a dynamic element as it has done so far regarding our past by enabling the Széchenyi István University to become as significantly important on a global scale as the engine and car manufacturing industry is to Győr” he said.
Róbert Balázs Simon, Member of Parliament for the Győr region, said „the Science & Innovation Park building was worthy of its resurrection by Győr and the Széchenyi University, as it was and will continue to be a modern, impressive, and symbolic building for the community.”
He went on to further state “the walls [of the building] must also be filled with content: this requires the outstanding knowledge of the university and the companies that are located here and whose combined activities will strengthen our economy.”
“As well as celebrating the 30th anniversary of our company, this year we are celebrating another milestone in our local scientific cooperation efforts. Audi Hungaria’s success over the past thirty years is the result of developing our expertise, our innovative thinking, and our connections with our partners. Furthermore, knowledge transfer between science and industry is essential for the transformation of the automotive industry, which is why we are delighted that with the establishment of the Győr Science and Innovation Park, we are creating an ecosystem that stimulates both innovation and research, while contributing to the high-level and practice-oriented training of our next generation of employees.”
– said Alfons Dintner, Chairman of the Board of Audi Hungaria.
Dr. Bálint Filep, President of the Széchenyi István University, Prof. Dr. Ferenc Friedler, Vice Rector of the University, Prof. Dr. László Palkovics, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Széchenyi István University Foundation, Alfons Dintner, Chairman of the Board of Audi Hungaria Zrt., and Robert Buttenhauser, Member of the Board of Management of Audi Hungaria Zrt., responsible for engine production and vehicle drives, all signed the strategic cooperation agreement at the opening ceremony of the Science & Innovation Park in Győr. The document covers, among other things, the practice-oriented development of training courses, the organisation of career guidance and admission preparation programmes, the operation of both the Audi Hungaria Faculty of Automotive Engineering and the Audi Hungaria External Department, an industrial internship programme for technical instructors, high-quality laboratory services, and joint research, development, and innovation projects all relating to state-of-the-art technologies and the multifaceted areas of sustainability.
The new facility represents both the modern and the traditional. The former Győr Biscuits and Wafers Factory will be commemorated during the ceremony held in its lobby, where an exhibition on the work of Béla Barényi, a Hungarian inventor and a leading figure in the field of vehicle safety, will also be opened. In the staircase of the building, visitors will be able to see a Formula Student racing car, an electric vehicle, a custom-designed engine block and a concrete sledge designed and built by Széchenyi University student teams.
