BBU's diverse research and scientific activities are characterised by a focus on corporate practice, research topics that are relevant and topical for economic actors, and also have practical significance. Our research teams work on R&D projects with key players in the Hungarian economy. There are currently more than 60 research groups at BBU and the Research Fund grant scheme funded 7 research projects at the University in 2019. Reflecting on the strategic areas of BBU, we have established four Centres of Excellence at the University focusing on the four main areas of our applied research activities. The Centres of Excellence are key players in their respective fields of activity in Hungary, play an important role in the relationship between higher education and businesses and carry out high quality applied scientific research relevant to practice, involving business partners and students.
Head of Centre
- Office: 1149 Budapest, Buzogány utca 10-12.
- Office: Building A, Ground Floor, Room A02
- Phone: +36 1 469-6694
- Internal extension: 6694
- E-mail: gyori.zsuzsanna@uni-bge.hu
Centres of Excellence
Budapest LAB Entrepreneurship Centre
Goal:
Budapest LAB helps to spread entrepreneurial culture and promote the success of Hungarian SMEs through knowledge sharing, in-house and partnered research, training, and inspiration. The aim of the workshop, which supports BGE's strategy, is to become one of the most respected research, development, training, and knowledge providers in Central Europe.
Focus Areas:
- Research – Budapest LAB carries out and coordinates research to learn more about small and medium-sized enterprises in Hungary. An important objective is to ensure that their results are used not only by the academic community but also by the stakeholders themselves - entrepreneurs and business planners, as well as policymakers. The LAB is also involved in the Family Business Research Programme, which was the first in Hungary to start investigating the specificities of this type of entrepreneur. In addition to family businesses, its research topics include start-ups, freelancers, and business mentoring. In addition, from 2020, Budapest LAB will also be the home base of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), the world's largest entrepreneurship research project.
- Education, Inspiration – Budapest LAB aims to contribute to the development of entrepreneurship in Hungary through education and inspiration, and to the development of entrepreneurial skills in a broad sense. The focus of its educational and inspirational activities is to support students and citizens of the BGE, but several programmes are open to all, and the LAB also regularly organises workshops, training courses and lectures for corporate partners.
Future of Higher Education Research Centre
Goal:
FHERC explores the challenges and opportunities for the future of higher education through a wide range of participatory, national, and international research collaborations and innovative methodologies. It is committed to serving as a high-level research and knowledge-sharing centre to help understand the challenges and opportunities for the future of higher education for the academic community, the business and corporate sector, higher education stakeholders, future students, and society as a whole.
Focus Areas:
- Research – As a high-level research and knowledge-sharing centre, FHERC helps to identify challenges and opportunities for the future of higher education, especially in the field of business higher education. Their results, scientific research and publications are useful to the academic community, the economic and corporate sectors, higher education actors, future students, and society as a whole.
- Dissemination – In addition to research, the FHERC team is active in domestic and international competitions, regularly organises conferences and professional workshops, and participates in prestigious scientific events with speakers. We are members of the 'European Universities - Critical Futures' project, which brings together European higher education research centres and researchers led by CHEF in Aarhus. Previously, we participated in the project called "Global Essay Mills Survey" (GEMS), we edited a special issue for the prestigious Futures journal (Q1) entitled Future of Higher Education. In addition, the head of the centre, Zsuzsanna Géring (PhD), was also a member of the management of the International Research Network ISA RC07 Futures Research between 2018 and 2022.
Centre of Excellence for Sustainability Impacts in Business and Society (CESIBUS)
Goal
The Centre of Excellence for Sustainability Impacts in Business and Society (CESIBUS), in line with the mission of the BBU, works to create and transfer knowledge on sustainability and responsibility, in the following fields:
· Conducting research in Hungary and internationally;
· Produce educational materials and implement educational activities;
· Collaborating with academic and corporate partners;
· Create, develop, and implement educational and training activities with partners in the field of research and education;
· Ensure visibility of the topic and the possibility of cooperation and joint work between researchers in the field at university level.
Focus areas
- Research - The Centre of Excellence works on a broad range of sustainability issues in two main research streams:
- Sustainability Impacts in Business - Sustainability in Organisations and the Value Chain: this stream researches the corporate and societal impact of sustainability and its measurability, with a particular focus on value chain integration.
- Sustainability Impacts in Society - sustainability beyond business: diversity and equal opportunities. In this stream, we focus on the social dimension of sustainability, including diversity and equal opportunities in business and society.
- Education - The Centre of Excellence's main task is to provide up-to-date information from this particular field to the BBU’s citizens, its partners, and external stakeholders as well. We provide new knowledge and research results for the BA course Responsible and Sustainable Company, which is compulsory at all three faculties of our University. In addition, we produce case study-based learning materials to ensure the horizontal dissemination of the topic, with the possibility of integration into other subjects. We also participate in national and international conferences and projects in order to create and use knowledge on sustainability as widely as possible.
Center of Excellence for Future Value Chains
Goal
Global value chains and supply chains are an integral part of our current economy. Their investigation reveal the global-scale division of work involving a lot of firms, carriers and other stakeholders. In this system, Hungary and Hungarian companies are also deeply embedded. In the past couple of years, it became evident that these global networks are under transformation because of technological developments and other megatrends. In order to ensure that we are up-to-date with the ongoing transformation of global value chains, and to help Hungarian companies benefit from these changes, it is essential to investigate the operation and structure of these networks, the supply chains, the governance practices and innovation processes together with their impact on the local economy and potential tasks for policy-making.
The Centre of Excellence for Future Value Chains (FVC) have been established to do research on global value chains and supply chains and on their future for the benefit of the Hungarian economy. The Centre involves researchers from all three faculties of BBU.
Focus area:
- Research - The research activities of FVC are focusing on two, interrelated and complementary aspects, which designate the two research streams of the Centre:
- Analysing the structural changes of global value chains (macro approach)
- Exploring the changes in business management, highlighting the impact of digital technologies on productivity and efficiency (micro approach)
The combination of the macro- and micro aspects in the research approach will lead to a more complex understanding of these structures, because the international flow of products and services is the sum of the values added and the economic results in the various layers of global value chains.
Centre of Excellence for Visitor Economy (CEVE)
Goal
Traveling, visiting, or tourism in the traditional sense is an increasingly integral part of our lives, and interactions with non-locals are becoming more and more important for a socio-economic community. The aim of CEVE is to examine the current state, connections, and future possibilities of the visitor economy, relying on the knowledge and network capital of BBU-FCHT. CEVE aims to serve tourism higher education as a knowledge-creating and knowledge-sharing community, strengthening its corporate and social relations.
Focus areas
· Research – CEVE undertakes to carry out research that, in addition to the publication of scientific publications, can help the work of the businesses and social actors involved, deepen the knowledge and broaden the horizons of tourism students in higher education. The focus of the research is always the visitor experience, the quality of the time spent visiting, the contribution of the visit to the quality of life, and the interactions that take place at the site of the visit, which often cannot be monetized or objectified.
· Dissemination – Through its scientific publications, CEVE wants to increase its scientific reputation and international recognition of BBU-FCHT. However, in comparison with other disciplines, the practical applicability and comprehensibility of research results are crucially important in the field of tourism. Therefore, CEVE specifically strives to activate social relations and to practice and develop science communication that is understandable to the general public.