Northern Great Plain Region (“Észak-Alföldi Régió”) is the innovative region of the health , agricultural and IT industry, where the priorities of innovation include the strengthening of the research bases in agricultural, geothermal energy utilization, in life sciences and biotechnologies.
The region - the counties of Hajdú-Bihar, Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok, and Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg - borders on Slovakia, Ukraine and Romania, thus is the eastern gateway to the European Union, with a significant educational and research capacity.
With a total area of 17,749 km2 (6,853 sq mi) and population of around 1.5 million it is also the second largest region of the country, providing 10% of the Hungarian GDP.
During the last years the region examined the synergetic opportunities in respect to large-scale R&D infrastructure investments and clusters enhancing the level of research, development and innovation and economic performance of the region.
Based on the long term tradition in education, research and production on the field of pharmaceutical industry one of the highest concentrations at European level was formulated in the region. During the last years significant investments were done with development of capacities and technologies.
Észak-Alföld Region is the center of the agriculture and food industry based on the scientific background of the University of Debrecen and the College of Nyíregyháza and using the latest genomical, proteomical, biotechnological and food technological methods.
The largest potential in natural resources of the region is in geothermal water. To explore it, significant numbers of regional and national initiatives were formulated connecting research and businesses, aiming at the development of new, low energy and environmental-friendly building materials, equipments and technologies, as well as integrated modeling of sustainability of geothermal systems.