From the 2026 budget audit
Art-theory research set by an academy, not by scholars competing on merit.
The MMA Research Institute's agenda is determined by an appointed cultural body — not by university competition for students, peer review, or research funding on the merits of proposals.
Roughly 123 Ft per taxpayer per year — 495.0 millió Ft for a captive research institute whose priorities are set by the parent academy, not by academic competition.
What you see — and what you don't
The seen: art-theory and architectural-history researchers employed by the academy. The unseen: the university positions and peer-reviewed research those researchers would compete for if the captive institute did not insulate their agenda from academic judgement — and the scholars whose proposals lose funding in a market the state institute does not have to enter.
Objection
"Art-theory research has no commercial market — without state support, it simply won't happen."
Answer
Art-theory and architectural-history scholarship happens in universities across Europe without captive academy institutes. Researchers are protected by a 24-month severance bridge with the right to take academic posts alongside their state salary; the institute's library and unfinished outputs transfer to a university or the national library system rather than being lost. The difference is who sets the research agenda: academic competition or an appointed body.
Share if you think research whose agenda is set by an appointed cultural body should compete for funding in universities instead.
The analyst's verdict
MMA Research Institute
Rationale
The Research Institute conducts art-theory and methodology research under the academy's direction. Research priority setting is precisely the case where the state cannot aggregate the dispersed knowledge that would tell it which questions are worth pursuing — there is no price signal on the value of one art-theory research programme over another, and the institute's agenda is set by the parent academy rather than by scholars competing for funding on the merits of proposals. The function is not rights-protection or a constitutional precondition; it is state-directed research attached to a discretionary cultural body. Art-theory and architectural-history scholarship is properly carried out in universities, where it competes for students, for peer-reviewed publication, and for research funding on the merits — not in a captive institute of an academy.
Transition mechanism
Severance-with-overlap, 24 months. The payroll component is 323.0 millió Ft (personnel 281.3 plus employer contributions 41.7). Affected researchers keep their state salary for two years and may take university or private posts within that window, keeping both incomes; academic and research skills transfer directly to higher education. The non-payroll cost — dologi kiadások 162.0 millió Ft and beruházások 10.0 millió Ft — ends in the first budget cycle. The institute's library, archives, and any unfinished research outputs transfer to a university or to the national library system rather than being lost.
Affected groups
The institute's research staff (the chapter publishes no headcount; the 281.3 millió Ft personnel line implies an order of roughly 25-45 posts at a sector-typical academic salary). Each is protected by 24 months of severance-with-overlap; the household path is re-employment in higher education or private research.
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