István Szabó

The Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences (MATE) is Hungary's largest agriculture and environmental science-oriented higher education organisation. MATE offers more than 50 diploma and degree courses, 52 MSc programs with over 13,000 students, and 14 Doctoral Schools with 750 PhD students. The Institute of Aquaculture and Environmental Safety (AKI) was awarded by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences as a ‘Centre of Research Excellence’ in 2022. The Institute published over 100 scientific research papers (66 Q1) in the last two years. In the previous five years, we participated in 21 national and six international projects, which resulted in 4 patents. The Institute’s mission is to support the development of the fisheries and environmental safety aspects for industrial partners by linking the for- and non-profit sectors, enhancing cooperation with the relevant stakeholders. We provide exceptional research infrastructure (e.g., analytical and molecular biology, ecotoxicology, animal welfare, and fish breeding) in Hungary. The Institute focuses on different aquatic and environmental research areas. Our aquatic toxicology tests enable the evaluation of the toxic effects of chemicals and environmental samples at different trophic levels in both acute and chronic schemes, from rapid microbial assays to two-generation and self-developed transgenic estrogenic sensitive fish tests.