Computer and Automation Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and Bosch plan strategic partnership

The Computer and Automation Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA SZTAKI), the largest and most successful IT research institute in the country, has started talks with the Bosch Engineering Center Budapest with the aim to set up a large-scale strategic partnership in the area of research, development and education.

Visiting Hungary from the headquarters of Bosch Automotive Electronics Division in Reutlingen, Christoph Kübel, President of the Division, and Klaus Meder, Executive Vice President Engineering, attended a laboratory demonstration and technical presentation at SZTAKI. Their hosts were the institute's Director, Péter Inzelt, and its Deputy Director of Research, academician József Bokor.

Kübel welcomed the opportunity for collaboration:

Hungary is of strategic importance to Bosch with regard to research, development and manufacturing on an international level. As a consequence, we focus on supporting engineering training in this country. We are convinced of the competitiveness of Hungarian engineers and Hungarian skills, and see our investments in Hungary as major pillars of global value creation. We look forward to continuing the talks.

MTA SZTAKI is one of the research institutes belonging to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, a workshop for information technology in the broad sense, and a national research base. Its activities cover the fields of automatic control systems, which include system and control theory, vehicle control and navigation systems, as well as engineering and business intelligence, areas which will be the major strategic pillars of the collaboration.

We aim to integrate achievements in engineering, mathematics and information technology into work on problem solving and systems development. We are also promoting international collaboration within the European Research sector. We are very pleased to have the chance to present our activities to the Engineering Center Budapest and Bosch's international authorities in the area, József Bokor, Deputy Director of Research of SZTAKI, said after the meeting.

The Engineering Center Budapest is one of Bosch's key bases for vehicle technology innovation. Since its foundation in 2005, it has offered attractive career opportunities for the best engineering students and graduates in the country. Having celebrated its fifth birthday last year and embodying Bosch's strategic innovation outlook, the Engineering Center Budapest now has a staff of nearly 600.

Jan Peter Stadler, Vice President of the Bosch Engineering Center Budapest, said after the meeting that the Bosch Group will be assigning a key role to the Budapest automotive R&D centre, in which the outstanding work by Hungarian engineers will play an essential part.

The potential collaboration arising from the links we have forged with the Computer and Automation Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences is a very good example of joint strategic thinking, and opens new horizons for the achievement of technical goals and connection into the international R&D community. Bosch's international involvement in this collaboration is proof that Hungarian engineers have the skills, outlook and creativity to make them excellent partners for the innovative culture Bosch has built up over more than a century, Stadler said.

Bosch spends more than 3.5 billion euros on research and development every year, and files more than 3 800 patents worldwide. The Bosch Group in Hungary spent 11 billion forints on research and development of strategic significance in 2010.