Sándor Bottka

He began his electrical engineering career at the International Computer Training Center (Számok) in 1970. He studied computer technology for a year as a scholarship holder at the Control Data Institute in Frankfurt.

From 1972, he was the youth patronage organizer of the Central Computer Development Program (SZKFP). From 1979, he worked in various positions in the National Technical Development Committee (OMFB) in the implementation of the SZKFP program.

Between 1991 and 1999, he served as Vice President of the OMFB, responsible for technical development policy and international scientific and technological (S&T) activities. He was a state representative in the S&T committees of several international organizations (e.g. NATO, OECD, EU), among others, he organized Hungary's EUREKA accession. From 1996, he supervised the development and operation of the research, development and innovation (RDI) application and program financing system in the OMFB.

He managed the development and implementation of several IT research, development and innovation (RDI) programs, e.g. National Geospatial Information Program (TNP), Application of Information and Communication Technologies (IKTA). From 2000, he worked on the Information Society Technologies and then Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) thematic programs of the EU Research and Technological Development (RTD) Framework Program. His employment as a civil servant was terminated in 2000.
He retired in 2008, but remained a member of the program board until 2015.

Co-author of two books (Central Unit, 1972; Venture Capital, 1989), presented at numerous domestic and international RDI and ICT conferences and workshops.

From 1976 he was a member of the NJSZT, then the head of the Youth Committee and a member of the Executive Committee. Between 1980 and 1990 he was a member of the presidency of the Association of Technical and Natural Science Associations (MTESZ). He was a curator of the Gábor Dénes Technical College of Informatics (GDF) Distance Education Foundation, the PRO CULTURA Foundation for Technical and Natural Science Culture and the Foundation for the Modernization of Hungarian Engineering Education.
The University Council of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) elected him an honorary member in 1993.

Awards: Bronze Medal of the Order of Merit for Labor (1984); MTESZ Award (1987); Neumann Award (NJSZT, 1995); Lóránd Eötvös Award (Minister of Industry and Trade, 1996); Dénes Gábor Award (GDF, 1998).