While Dorottya Zakariás and Ábel Somogyi analysed the development opportunities of European FinTech hubs, Máté Ujvárosi and Viktor Lázár presented their macro-economic model for the diffusion of industrial robots at the EBES conference in Madrid.

According to research by the Workshop on Technological Futures, the main driver of industrial robot uptake is the gap between the price of robots and the cost of labour, but robotisation is also significant in countries specialised in highly robotised industries (automotive, electronics).

On the second day, Csaba Johanyák presented his research based on data from tens of thousands of startups and venture capitalists, analysing the relationship between investment rounds of startups and the geographical distance to investors. The much-touted "death of distance" phenomenon at the dawn of globalisation has been debunked by many researchers, but not many have yet uncovered the distance preferences of European scaleup investors with fresh and relevant data. As a result of the research, we can say that the distance in kilometres between investor and invested still has a negative impact on investments even after the wave of digitalisation caused by the pandemic.

Zoltán Cséfalvay, head of the CNTF, looked at the dynamics of robot manufacturers, large enterprises and emerging startups in the services sector, with data series 2012-2021.