President of HAS

• May 1996 He is elected President of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
• June 1996 – April 1998 Reform of science policy. He proposes a reform of science policy in June 1996, which is manifested in a government declaration and later in a parliamentary resolution with the personal support of the Prime Minister. He writes the main documents of the reform (1996-97), later published in a monograph. (Tudománypolitika az ezredforduló Magyarországán [Science Policy in Hungary at the Turn of the Millennium], Bp., 1998)
 
The guiding principles of the reform process are the following:
  1. The governing board of the national science organisation is the Science Policy College (thus far having only advisory competence), the members of which are leaders of related science autonomies (National Technological and Development Committee, HAS, Conference of Rectors) and the respective ministries.
  2. Increasing the rate of budget subsidies spent on science. Providing tax exemption in case of orders given by the private sector to the domestic research base.
  3. Consolidation of the Hungarian research network. Supervision of the university departments, the research network of the Academy and the background institutions of the ministries. This includes necessary fusions, the provision of appropriate registered offices and infrastructure, settling the system of financing, providing proper material support for researchers and for building a carrier as a researcher. Initiating developments in new fields of science.
  4. Shaping the new image of the Academy:  a) General Assembly of Hungarian researchers, b) autonomous research network and c) exploring strategic possibilities for the nation, the elaboration of short term action plans for decision makers
  5. Reconceptualising the relationship of science and society in market economy and information society: opening to the business sphere and the public. Institutionalising the World Science Day.
  6. Putting the structure of Hungarian science on a cultural-national basis, the gradual integration of scientific life beyond the borders of Hungary in the work of domestic workshops, activating the pro-science activity of the Hungarian state beyond the borders, as well.
The reform is accomplished in several elements in the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1997-2002), but not in the university sphere neither in the background institutions of ministries.
• 1996–2000 Academy on a cultural-national basis. The Committee for Hungarian Science Abroad, which had been a subcommittee of the Foreign Affairs Committee of HAS, was raised to a presidential level. (With Dénes Berényi, member of HAS as President and Mariann Tarnóczy as Secretary). From 1997 the HAS finances on his proposal the participation of Hungarian external members of the Academy living beyond the borders of Hungary on the General Assembly and an additional two weeks of research in Hungary and supports sending two Hungarian scientific periodicals of their choice and invitations to the meetings and conferences of their respective sections. In 1998 Ferenc Glatz launches the Domus Hungarica Scientiarum et Artium Programme in co-operation with the Ministry of Education. The HAS provides a scholarship for senior and junior researchers living beyond the borders of Hungary to support their research work in Hungary, while the Ministry provides accommodation in the Domus House in Budapest. On his suggestion qualified Hungarian researchers living beyond the borders of Hungary can also request admission to the General Assembly of the Academy from 1999. He launches the Homeland Research Programme in 2000 to support the research work of Hungarian scientists living beyond the borders of Hungary and scientific workshops in their home countries.
• September 1996–2002 He launches and administers the National Strategic Research Programme. In the framework of this programme the members of the General Assembly undertake to explore the strategic challenges and opportunities emerging for the Hungarian nation and state. (The HAS should be regarded as a national think tank for the society.) This is one of the public benefits, for which the society finances the work of the Academy through the budget. The Parliament endorses strategic research in a resolution. 1996-2002 the following main topics and related action plans were elaborated: agriculture, water management, transport development, environment management and protection, information technology, Hungarian language, social policy and health care, minority policy and the preparation for EU-accession. Ferenc Glatz personally edits the book series (Magyarország az ezredfordulón [Hungary at the Turn of the Millennium] and the periodical Ezredforduló [Turn of the Millennium] covering research results entitled. (After 2002, with the termination of his presidential portfolio he edits the series Nemzeti Stratégiai Tanulmányok [National Strategic Studies] covering a programme for the River Tisza, the Homokhátság [Sand Ridge] Programme, Balkan Studies, the water management plan of the Carpathian Basin, rural policy, plans for territorial development, climate change, sustainable development, alternative energy resources etc.).
• September 1996 The new leadership of the Academy stops the decrease of the Academy budget, which has been continuous since 1990 with the help of parliamentary parties and the government. Between 1996 and 2002 the budget of the Academy increased every year. 
• September 1996 On his initiative the government links the honorarium of the members and doctors of the Academy to the amount of minimum wages.  The reason for this is that national culture cannot exist without the intellectual elite, the meritocracy, which should be subsidised from the budget in the transition period.
• December 1996–2001 The consolidation of the research network of HAS. According to the science policy programme the General Assembly of the Academy assigns a Consolidation Committee, which is led by the President (together with General Secretary László Keviczky). (Secretaries of the Committee were Kálmán Pannonhalmi, Péter Zilahy, István Csomó, István Teplán, Pál Pritz.) 2.2 billion HUF were allocated from the budget for the first three years of the institutional consolidation.
    The phases of the institutional consolidation are the following:
  1. 1996–1997: consolidation of registered offices (fusions, rearrangement of offices, modernisation of research infrastructure)
  2. 1997–1999: setting the number of researchers financed by the budget for each institute. Doubling the number of young researchers – the mobile part of the research network
  3. 1997–1998: setting the system of financing: basic financing (wages and the maintenance of offices), the financing of tasks and projects (special projects specified by HAS as maintainer) and the financing of development (curiosity, i.e. research initiatives). As part of the consolidation of financing the wages of researchers are settled and brought to the level of university wages (1997-2001). This would provide the basic conditions for the penetrability of universities and research institutes.
• December 1996 The founding and construction of the Academy Club in the main building of the Academy with the involvement of the business sphere. (Its secretary being Kálmán Pannonhalmi and Péter Zilahy.) (The Club has been operational up to the present day.)
• January 1997–2000 Reform of the internal structural system of the HAS.
  1. Apart from the traditional General Assembly held every year he introduced regular sittings for a „working general assembly” discussing the reforms and strategic programmes of the Academy.
  2. Systematising the internal scientific forums of the HAS. From 1997 the documentation of inaugural lectures is compulsory. He re-launches the series compiling commemorative speeches for the deceased members of HAS the publication of which was discontinued in 1949.
  3. 1998–99 The evaluations of the prevailing conditions of branches of science pursued in Hungary (discipline discussions) were completed.
  4. The national survey of Hungarian researcher base is completed and discussed.
  5. The account of the research institutes of HAS is drawn and their research aims are set within the Hungarian research system.
  6. A new publication system (Academic Atelier) is launched (Inaugural lectures, Commemorative speeches, Public Assembly lectures, Parliamentary reports; Discipline Discussions, publication of institute booklets in separate series) The Almanac of HAS is republished (1997).
  7. He launches the periodical „Akadémia” (ed. István Szabó B., Kálmán Pannonhalmi, Kornélia Burucs), which informs the 10 000 members of the public assembly four times a year on the transformation process of the HAS and Hungarian science in general.
  8. A new system of academy tariffs (April 1999) together with the tariffs of the business sphere.
• February 1997–April 1998 He leads the Danube Committee of the Academy, the aim of which is to elaborate a complex programme for nature and water management, as well as a regional cultural programme for the Danube valley. (László Alföldi, Pál Michelberger, László Somlyódy, Gábor Fekete, Árpád Berczik, György Vajda, secretary Ilona Banczerowsky).
• May 1997 He announces the programme of the Open Academy, which represents an opening to society and economic life. In 1997 a government resolution ordains the celebration of the Science Day (3 November), on the occasion of which university faculties and research institutes are open for the public. The television programme „Academy” is launched on chanel M2 broadcasted monthly (ed. György Enyedi). He creates the group for Social Relations at HAS, with István Szabó B. as head of the group. He launches the homepage of HAS (2001).
• November 1997 He elaborates a scholarship programme for young researchers (Bolyai-scholarship). The aim of the programme is to ensure the continuity of a researcher carrier in the period between attaining the Phd and the Doctor of HAS title. (With János Gergely as President. The programme is still operational.)
• May 1998 At the General Assembly dealing with the new role of the Academy he puts his theses on defining the threefold role (public use) of HAS to discussion, the threefold role being:
  1. Representative of the scientific and material interests of Hungarian scientists
  2. Maintainer of an independent research network
  3. Advisor of the nation (think tank)
• June 1999 First World Conference on Science in Budapest. He is President of the organising committee (with István Láng), delivers one of the keynote speeches of the world conference (about the role of science in maintaining cultural diversity; knowledge-based society and “open science”; the role of science in the “service providing state”; new synthesis in the mentality of researchers).
• December 1999 He prepares a plan for the thematic development of the institutional network of the Academy and its internal, structural modernisation. In the framework of this the development of water management (László Somlyódy), the research of ethnic minorities (László Szarka), ecology (Attila Borhidi), judaic studies (Géza Komoróczy), research of the Hungarian Great Plain (Bálint Csatári), and the creation of major research centres takes place.
• May 2000 He introduces a proposal on changing the system of sections in the Academy and in favour of new branches of science to be represented in the Academy. (Proposal rejected) At the same time the General Assembly accepts the commission of an academic reform committee (the so-called Structural Committee). The task of this committee is to represent new branches of science at the HAS and to supervise the structure of sections and research units and the system of election and representation. (The President of the committee is János Gergely.)
• 2000–2003 He proposes and edits three volumes of the compendium entitled A Magyar Tudományos Akadémia tagjai, 1825–2002 [Members of the Hungarian Academy of Science, 1825-2002] (with Mihály Beck, Sándor Kónya, Kálmán Kulcsár, Károly Méhes, Zsigmond Ritoók, Ferenc Szabadváry, Loránt Tilkovszky. Co-editors are János Pótó, Margit Balogh and Kornélia Burucs). The volumes were published in 2003.
• May 2001 He invites representatives of church institutions doing scientific work to the Public Assembly of the Academy.
• 2002 He becomes editor-in-chief of the 7-volume series Magyar Tudománytár [Hungarian Science Repertory] (each containing 60 quires) that aimed to describe the state of affairs in Hungary at the turn of the Millennium. Volumes published between 2002 and 2007 are devoted to the following topics: earth and water (Ernő Mészáros, Ferenc Schweitzer, István Láng), settlement structure (György Enyedi), political system (Kálmán Kulcsár), economy (Tibor Palánkai), culture (Ernő Marosi). (With Margit Balogh as proof reading editor.)