According to the European Innovation Scoreboard, Hungary also belongs to the group of Moderate Innovators (in the middle of the group). Employment and Sales impacts are the strongest innovation dimensions, while intellectual assets are the weakest ones.

Hungary and other countries taking part in the Frugal Innovation project according to the European Innovation Scoreboard 2018.

Our project team conducted research in their counties in order to find out the specifics of frugal innovation market. A piece of research was conducted in Hungary. Are you interested to hear about the results? Hungarians appreciate some frugal innovations which are available on their market.

A personal alarm is perceived as a frugal innovation. The idea of this device is very simple – in case of a danger, one can active the alarm and it continuous to sound. Due to the high share of crimes against elderly people, the Hungarian police was disseminating such personal alarms among retired people who live alone in order to minimize the risk of crimes. In this situation the target group could not afford high-tech alarm systems and was not aware of the available solutions of personal protection. Therefore in this case this product meet social problems of retired people.

Another idea is The Outdoor Gym that is more or less known in Western European countries but in Hungary such gyms have started to appear recently. The aim of these gyms to foster outside activities in those parts of cities and towns where professional gyms are not available and/or inhabitants cannot afford the membership fees. In these parts of cities people live in block of flats where employability and salaries are low. These gyms helps to spend the time more useful and let inhabitants to improve their health conditions. Thus, this idea reduces health care expenditures in a long term.

Wizz Air (a low-budget airline) can be also perceived as a frugal innovation. This Hungarian low-cost carrier was established in 2003 and now has the biggest fleet in Hungary.

Such no-frill services is based on the basis aim – to carry passengers from point A to B. All premium and unnecessary services are reduced. Also a very high proportion of bookings made through the Internet and low average fares, with a strong focus on price competition make such arlines affordable for many passengers.

Hungary is ranked among the European countries with the highest poverty rates. Bulgaria (30%), Greece (21.1%), Romania (19.4%) and Hungary (14.5%) register the highest shares of severe material deprivation.

Almost half of Hungarians, 44 percent, cannot afford basic resources. This compares with an average of 19 percent across the EU.

Source: European Innovation Scoreboard 2018 – Executive summary, European Commission, 21/06/2018 https://ec.europa.eu/docsroom/documents/30201

Eurostat 2017.