CITADELS is an international Horizon Europe project involving Corvinus University of Budapest, which supports the international mobility, skills development, and career advancement of researchers and research support professionals working in the fields of DeepTech and Industry 5.0, cooperation between the academic and industrial sectors in seven widening countries, and the strengthening of human-centered and responsible research and innovation.
By combining research excellence, DeepTech expertise, and a social science approach, the project aims to build attractive career paths, stronger innovation ecosystems, and a more competitive and resilient regional economy in the long term. One of the project’s goals is to ensure that a human-centered approach is consistently applied in the development and implementation of technological solutions, a role in which Corvinus plays a key part.
The CITADELS project is closely linked to two key priorities of Corvinus University’s institutional strategy: first, artificial intelligence plays a central role in the development and application of DeepTech solutions; second, the project explicitly supports human-centered, responsible, and socially embedded innovation. The project links technological advancement with social responsibility, ethical considerations, and long-term economic and social resilience, which aligns well with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly in the areas of innovation, quality education, decent work, and partnerships.
Project Leader
Subproject Leader
Project Manager
Professor Emeritus, Corvinus University of Budapest
Head of Operations at Tech In The City, Chapter Director at Startup Grind Budapest
Chief Scientific Officer at Regional Centre for Information and Scientific Development
The CITADELS project is led by the University of Belgrade – School of Electrical Engineering (ETF) in Belgrade, and the consortium brings together organizations from 9 countries across 10 partner institutions to strengthen academic, industrial, and innovation collaborations:
Corvinus University of Budapest plays a key role in the project’s human-centered dimension. The Corvinus team’s task is to support engineers and developers in reflecting more consciously on how technological solutions affect people. Our team
provides social science and ethical perspectives to inform design decisions and highlight issues such as dignity, skills, inclusion, and well-being.
A central component of our work is intervention research. The Corvinus team monitors the research and development process as it unfolds. We share the results as feedback with the technical teams, highlighting human-centered risks and opportunities. We then examine how all of this influences the participants’ attitudes and practices.
Corvinus’s additional responsibilities:
leads the Responsible Research and Innovation Expert Academy
participates in mobility programs for researchers and research support staff
contributes to career planning and mentoring processes
organizing CITADEL Days events to present the project’s results
it also presents the project’s results at Deeptech Days
The project’s primary target groups:
The project will include:
Corvinus University of Budapest invites applications for four social science research talent positions within the Horizon Europe CITADELS project: Cultivating Industry 5.0 Talents: Academia–Industry Collaboration
A new European initiative, with the participation of Corvinus University of Budapest as Hungary’s sole partner, has been launched to strengthen the spread of Industry 5.0 across Central and Eastern Europe. Industry 5.0 builds on partnership between humans and machines, aiming to advance ethical, sustainable, and people-centred technologies.
The European Commission has supported the Horizon Europe project “CITADELS – Cultivating Industry 5.0 Talents: academia-industry collaboration and empowerment through accessible Deep technologies” submitted with the participation of the Corvinus University of Budapest.
Project duration: September 1, 2025 – August 31, 2029
The project consortium’s official website: https://deeptech-citadels.com/
Project Framework: Horizon Europe
Call: Horizon-Widera-2024-Talents-03
Fact Sheet: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101217281
Hungarian funding: Project No. 2025-3.1.2-KÖA-2025-00017 was implemented with funding from the National Research, Development, and Innovation Fund of the Ministry of Culture and Innovation, under the “2025-3.1.2-KÖA – Government Own Resources Fund” grant program.
