The Forum Regional Development Centre (FRDC) was founded in 1999 as a member of the Forum Institute Consortium. Our mission is to contribute to building an open and prosperous southern Slovakia. To achieve this goal, we continuously build capacity and networks within the region, across the country and abroad.

We support and develop Hungarian civil society organisations, municipalities, and small and medium-sized enterprises in southern Slovakia. Our key priorities include promoting social innovations, entrepreneurial mindset in solving social problems, multi-sectoral cooperation and fostering collaborations and partnerships with Slovak organisations.

FRDC strives for positive change in the Southern Slovakia region, creating a community space where different stakeholders can come together to achieve a shared vision for our region. We continuously strive to contribute to the development and prosperity of the area through innovative solutions and effective stakeholder networks.

In working with the FRDC team and in establishing partnerships and collaborations, we are excited to be part of shaping the future and development of the South Slovakia region.

Our values

COOPERATION

We believe that solving complex social and environmental problems can only be achieved by working together with other organisations, sectors, individuals, etc.

COMPETENCE

We offer the best quality to our partners and clients. To this end, we regularly attend training courses, conferences and study local and international literature.

RESPONSIBLE GOVERNANCE

Good governance and transparency are the cornerstones of our organisation. For us, good governance means actively involving all stakeholders in our decision-making processes.

DIVERSITY

Diversity is a defining feature of our society, and we see it as a strength. We are open to new ideas and “new and unusual” solutions.

Creative solutions since 1999

1999 – 2014: The era of “knowledge brokering”

Since its creation, the Forum Regional Development Centre has drawn on the wealth of knowledge, experience and contacts that its founders acquired in the 1990s at the original Forum Institute, in other organisations and through various training courses at home and abroad. Thanks to these, we have been involved from the very early years in various international projects aimed at building the capacity of local and tourism development NGOs and activists working in Southern Slovakia.

We travelled a lot to Hungary, Austria, the Netherlands and other countries, from which we came back with a lot of inspiration, not only for ourselves but also for the activists and professionals accompanying us from all over Southern Slovakia. We then turned the information, knowledge and experience we gained into ideas, and very often into successful new projects.

During this period, our colleagues worked closely with the Forum Information Centre, the third member of the Forum Consortium, which was engaged in research, development and networking of Hungarian NGOs in Southern Slovakia.

Our most important work from these years:

  • CELODIN (Central European Local Development Network): Between 2000 and 2005 we worked with colleagues from Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland and Transylvania on several international projects.
  • Hainburg – Somorja 2012 (2008-2012): The main beneficiary of the project supported by the Interreg SK-AT programme was Town Šamorín, but we initiated, coordinated the preparation, wrote the grant application and managed the project implementation.  
  • DATOURWAY (2009-2011): In this project we developed a strategy for tourism development in the Danube region together with NGOs and public sector institutions from the Danube countries. The project was supported by the Interreg SEE programme. Once again, we have tried to involve as many local organisations as possible in our work, thus helping their development.
  • Mentoring programme for start-up NGOs (2012-2014): In the framework of the Interreg HU-SK project, we linked this topic to the work of the Forum Information Centre and again developed the capacities of NGOs.  
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2014 – 2020: Period of “interim works”

The large projects were gradually replaced by smaller ones, where we worked for other NGOs and municipalities as interim project managers or as experts in local development, proposal writing and proposal management.

Our own initiative work has mainly focused on Šamorín and its surroundings, organising various children’s programmes on local natural and cultural heritage and treasures.

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From 2020: Social innovation and networking

In 2020, at the outbreak of the pandemic, we became aware that our organisation and our staff had the experience to help colleagues and teachers in that crisis situation. At the beginning of the lockdown, we organised an online hackathon for educators – the Karantema – with volunteers from different backgrounds, and over 50 educators took part. The feedback was very good and it encouraged us to start looking deeper into social innovation, social entrepreneurship and collaboration. In our work, we use a recipe that has been tried and tested since our inception: to pass on the knowledge we have acquired through our national and international network of contacts, experience and studies to NGOs, municipalities and SMEs working in Southern Slovakia, thus contributing to building an open and prosperous Southern Slovakia.

Our team

  • Andrea Lelovics
    Programme Manager

    I manage international projects, teach, brainstorm and help bring “impossible” ideas to life. Over the last 20 years I have worked with NGOs, companies and local authorities. After graduating in economics and MBA, I am currently researching the positive effects of networking on solving social problems as a PhD student at the University of Economics in Bratislava. I work in Hungarian, Slovak, English and German.

  • Krisztina Szekeres
    Director

    I am a financial manager. I started as an accountant in the entrepreneurial sector and in 2002 I tried my hand in the third, non-profit sector. Today the non-profit sector accounts for 80% of my activity. I do consultancy, accounting, project accounting and auditing. Initially, I was always told that the third sector did not need accounting and tax auditing. But it is difficult to apply for grants and prepare financial plans and reports without them.

  • Valéria Szomolai
    Project Manager
  • Lajos Tuba
    Project Manager
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