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The HUN-REN Hungarian Research Network is organising an all-day conference called Space Summit 2026 on 10 February, with the aim of strengthening Hungary's visible presence in the global space sector in the long term.
The Space Summit 2026 will be hosted by Tibor Kapu, an astronaut of the HUNOR program, and the speakers will include leading figures in Hungarian and international space research, including Bertalan Farkas, Charles Simonyi, Peggy Whitson and Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski.
According to a statement from the organiser HUN-REN Hungarian Research Network, the aim of the all-day professional event is to initiate a dialogue on the future role of Hungary and the HUN-REN Hungarian Research Network in the European and global space research ecosystem.
At the event, HUN-REN's research institutes, supported research groups, prominent university partners and industrial players will jointly examine what space research means today.
Participants will review the full spectrum of scientific and technological research related to space - from astronomy to planetary protection, from space weather to instrument development - with special attention to those focus areas where Hungary has a real competitive advantage.
The conference will focus on the development of a flagship research program that integrates domestic space research competencies and provides opportunities for HUN-REN institutes, researchers, university workshops and industrial actors to implement joint projects of international scale.
The invited speakers include Orsolya Ferencz, Ministerial Commissioner for Space Research, Klaudia Vivien Nagy, a qualified space doctor of the European Space Agency (ESA), as well as Bertalan Farkas and Charles Simonyi.
In addition to the host Tibor Kapu, who gained experience in implementing scientific and technical experiments on the International Space Station as a participant in the Axiom-4 mission in 2025, the event will also be attended by the two astronauts of the mission, Peggy Whitson and Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski, who will report on the experiences of their own missions, the practical challenges of space exploration, and the scientific results of human space travel.
The participants of the event will focus on good practices of successful research institute-university-industry cooperation, and analyze the current position of Hungary and HUN-REN in space exploration.
As they wrote, Hungary's strengths include a high-level basic research background, special instrument development competencies, and connections to international research infrastructures and organizations. ESA membership, participation in international missions and joining global research networks play a key role in ensuring that Hungarian researchers and companies are active shapers of future space programs.
An important topic of the professional conference will be the issue of professional recruitment, reviewing the status of university training programs and the challenges of a researcher's career. It was emphasized that the success of space research requires a wide range of engineers, software developers and other high-level experts in addition to researchers. The goal is to develop training and career paths that will ensure the human resource base of domestic space research in the long term.
At the event, the five institutions of HUN-REN: the Research Institute for Geophysics and Space Sciences, the Wigner Research Center for Physics, the Research Center for Astronomy and Earth Sciences, the Research Center for Energy Sciences, and the Institute for Nuclear Research represent the domestic space research value chain, covering a significant part of the spectrum from basic research to instrument development.
According to the message of the Space Summit 2026, Hungary wants to become an active shaper of future space research. As they wrote, the integration of science, higher education, and industry can create new innovation chains that create scientific, economic, and technological value.
"The aim of the conference is to further strengthen the partnerships and strategic directions that will ensure Hungary's visible and decisive presence in the global space sector in the long term," they emphasized.
Source: MTI.hu
Photo: MTI/Hegedűs Róbert
