The intellectual predecessor of the Great Plain Research Institute of the Centre for Regional Studies(CRS) of the HAS (Hungarian Academy of Sciences) established in Szeged, parallel to the creation of the Transdanubian Research Institute. The first unit of the present Institute, the Great Plain Research Group of the Geographical Research Institute of the HAS, was organised in Békéscsaba in 1973. Together with the Settlement Research Group of Kecskemét, established in 1982, the two units were integrated into the research network of the Centre for Regional Studies, founded in 1983. Within the CRS, together with the Szolnok and Debrecen Groups founded in 1992, the four units were re-organised into the Great Plain Research Institute. The primary scientific task of the Institute is the comprehensive regional research of one of the most characteristic Hungarian large regions, the Great Hungarian Plain. |