HUNGARIAN UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE AND LIFE SCIENCES

MATE

Alcím

Rövid név:

Megvalósító osztály:

Vezető kutató: Dr. Edit Kaszab

Introduction

Since its establishment on February 1, 2021, the Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences (MATE) has been operating as one of Europe's largest multidisciplinary institutions focused on agriculture. The university’s mission is to provide world-class education that supports graduates in achieving a secure livelihood and an inspiring career—particularly those who take on leading roles in the development of Hungary’s historically rich and well-endowed agriculture and food industry.

In recent years, the university has become the intellectual, policy, and innovation hub of the sector, offering greater flexibility for modernizing and developing education, operations, and institutional structure. Closer cooperation between the research and academic spheres enables the generation of even more research and development outcomes in the field of agriculture.

MATE draws inspiration from the most successful European universities, combining tradition with modern solutions. Its infrastructure is built around historic educational institutions. The university welcomes students with expert faculty and a uniquely green environment across its campuses in Budapest, Gödöllő, Gyöngyös, Kaposvár, Keszthely, and Szarvas.

With continuously renewed academic programs and significant investments, MATE aims to strengthen its integration into the international higher education landscape. The institution is committed to equipping its students with comprehensive knowledge that enables them to succeed anywhere in the world. By revitalizing agricultural education in Hungary and strengthening international relations, MATE's long-term goal is to rank among the top thirty agricultural universities in the world.

Roles

MATE as coordinator has long-time expertise in the bio-based degradation of various environmental pollutants along with the evaluation of biodetoxification, i.e., the measurement of the residual toxicity of bacterial metabolites. MATE owns an outstanding environmental bacterial and fungal strain collection, generally performs bacterial fermentation, immobilisation, and lyophilisation and has extensive experience in vitro and in vivo, acute and chronic ecotoxicological testing using a variety of test organisms, including prokaryotes, unicellular eukaryotes, aquatic invertebrate and vertebrate models. MATE adopted, developed and validated NAMs, such as the estrogen-sensitive transgenic zebrafish line Tg(vtg1:mCherry) that is suitable for the direct measurement of estrogenicity and Saccharomyces cerevisiae BLYES and BLYAS strains for the rapid and reliable detection of agonist and antagonist hormonal activities. These effect-based tools enable the measurement and monitoring of diverse environmental samples, including slurry-based irrigation waters and solid fractions.

MATE provides an excellent basis for manure sampling and data collection and, as a higher education and research institute, reaches the network of local and regional actors for stakeholder engagement to increase the social acceptance of the project.