The Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Hungarian: Magyar Tudományos Akadémia (MTA)) is the most important and prestigious learned society of Hungary. Its seat is at the bank of the Danube in Budapest, between Széchenyi rakpart and Akadémia utca. Its main responsibilities are the cultivation of science, dissemination of scientific findings, supporting research and development and representing Hungarian science domestically and around the world.
The history of the academy began in 1825 when Count István Széchenyi offered one year’s income of his estate for the purposes of a Learned Society at a district session of the Diet in Pressburg (Pozsony, present Bratislava, seat of the Hungarian Parliament at the time), and his example was followed by other delegates. Its task was specified as the development of the Hungarian languageand the study and propagation of the sciences and the arts in Hungarian. It received its current name in 1845.