Sara’s blog about the researching rural community development in Balaton-felvidék

My tour of social innovation sites and conferences continued over the past few weeks. After visiting Lilliomkért and getting to witness the beginning of a beautiful Spring in the Balaton Uplands, my family and I joined other American researchers for a trip to Szeged and Gyula! Our time in Szeged was sunny and warm (I bet you aren’t surprised!). We visited historical sites and attended a few lectures at the University of Szeged before heading to the ELI-ALPS laser institute. This is a place where high-tech laser research is being done to further the progress of medicine, physics, and industry with 4D imaging and predictive technology. We had the famous Szegedi fish soup for dinner, everyone liked it and it was delicious!

The next day we toured Gyula and learned about the history and art (and the chocolate!) there. We were able to compare Gyulai and Szegedi sausage but there wasn’t an agreement about which is best!

After arriving back in Budapest, my family and I traveled to Edinburgh Scotland for me to attend a conference. This OECD Rural Development Conference was held for rural policy makers and practitioners all over the world. As it was in Scotland, there were a lot of European countries represented. I was able to meet several Hungarians and sat next to a Polish woman who works at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. We talked about commonalities between Hungary and Poland and she had some good stories to tell about the friendship between Poland and Hungary.

At this conference I was happy to meet several people who work at offices like Éltetõ and many of them said they have more money than grant applications for this funding cycle. It sounds like the process of applying for rural development grants is onerous for people all over Europe; it also sounds like there is a lot of potential for getting your grant approved if you can submit your application soon!

Thank you for reading!