Two and a half years of restructuring the Institute of Social Policy and Labour in Hungary has left Agnes Simonyi, Director General of the Institute with a lot of work, a back problem but plenty of enthusiasm. Today, the institute is a think tank integrated within the Ministry of Social Policy and Labour, and brings together departments that were previously scattered in different ministries dealing with methodological research in social policy, child policy, drug preventions, youth research, labour research etc. We became a quite big, yet rationalized, structure of research and development in important fields of social and employment policy.

Simonyi’s resume is enriched with research and teaching at universities in Hungary, Italy, France and Japan to positions such as Deputy Secretary of State for the Hungarian Ministry of Labour and international work with UN as a Director of Social Welfare building foundations of the future Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare in UN administered Kosovo. The list of her research and published work is just as extensive and in 2002 she was awarded the Polányi Prize of the Hungarian Sociological Association for the best publication of the year. But today she prefers talking about the path the Institute of Social Policy and Labour (SZMI), a member of ESN, has taken in the last few years.

SZMI is core-funded by the Ministry itself and they top up their budgets for research projects through European and national research grants. For example next year they will implement a project in frame of the Social Renewal Operative Programme through the European Social Fund, which will be a key project in modernizing social services in Hungary. In addition to such big projects, the institute also undertakes focused research for more targeted issues like local development of a given service or the revision of the legal background of childcare services, a recent work they did. Some of our projects are long-term and planned for several years and some others are linked to immediate needs of the ministry for policy-making. We are very much involved in the pre-decision making phase but also on the post-policy reports for the government and for general assembly.
 
The process of restructuring SZMI while continuing the research projects was not an easy task. With my colleagues we understood that we cannot keep our specialized approach researching separately labour market, long-term care, childcare etc. Institutions should have an integrated vision of dealing with social issues. The intensity of the job left Simonyi and many of her colleagues with a back problem, which she says goes hand-in-hand with the profession. But the good news is - now they all have backbone friendly chairs and twice a day they may go down in the conference room to socialize while they do easy stretching exercises to ease back pain.

So how do researchers work in everyday politics? - It depends how you define politics and being political -  Simonyi answers with a warm smile and the passion of an experienced teacher. Politics of social issues to her can be the day-to-day politics of discussions in the parliament and the government, but also the long-term vision of politics, which is the formulation of professional policy making. Issues of social policy should not be linked just to the four-year mandate of the government, there should be continuity and the consensus of professional policy making and this is what the work of our institute is about.

As a researcher with international experience for many years, Simonyi seems to be at the heart of bridging the gap between national research and policy-making. But she is modest not to take any credit yet think of more bridges to cross. She is participating in the ESN working group on Active Inclusion to bridge the gap between national and European experience through exchange of good practice. Social inclusion is a very important issue in Hungary as we had 15-20 years of a very low level of activity during the transformation of our society. It is a huge challenge to try to  integrate into the labour market people who were out of it for a while, or youth in deprived areas where is lack of adequate skills or lack of opportunities, especially for Roma minorities in rural areas.

But Simonyi is optimistic. Europe is a big resource especially for the New Member states of understanding how your neighbours are dealing with the same problems and how they tackle issues. She also has faith in young people who see careers in social policy. Her greatest satisfaction is when she sees her former students sitting in the same table in seminars and conferences debating research and policy issues with her. To such young professionals she has a strong message. Go out there and see other countries’ experiences. Be open to and interested in new experiences, leave prejudices behind and try to understand the genuine differences of other countries, organizations, and research institutes. She herself would do exactly that if she had to start her career all over again.