The justification of the flagship project in the context of the coronavirus outbreak in 2020, which seriously affected the economy and the labour market, required urgent intervention in all countries concerned. The measures put in place in response to the emergency ordered on 11 March 2020, the restrictions on catering and tourism and spill-over effects on the external markets led to a sustained decline in economic and business activities. The negative effects of the coronavirus emergency have also significantly affected the Hungarian economy and the labour market. In order to prevent the redundancies of businesses in difficulty due to the pandemic situation, and to protect jobs, the Government decided to support short-time work schemes in the framework of employment policy measures and to support wages for highly skilled workers in the research, development and innovation (RDI) sector. The latter measure aims to avoid redundancies during the COVID-19 outbreak in the RDI sector and to prevent labour migration by supporting the maintenance of wages in the RDI sector. The objective and target group of the priority project The wage support for highly qualified employees in the RDI sector is to protect the jobs of employees in the RDI sector (e.g. engineers, development engineers, IT specialists), to maintain the wages of those working in the sector with the support, and to ensure the long-term employment of the employees of the RDI sector. The purpose of the assistance is to avoid redundancies during the COVID-19 outbreak. The priority project targets workers and employers involved in research and development activities affected by the health emergency. The support shall cover all non-budgetary bodies employers where research and experimental development are carried out. This includes, in particular, employers classified in the field of TEÁOR 72 (Scientific Research and Development) where the employees in the RDI position are employed. An employer is eligible if he or she employs a research and development staff. Research and developer is a natural person who is engaged in the creation, development or management of projects aimed at creating or developing new knowledge, intellectual creation, product, service, procedure, method, system. There are (also) research employers in all sectors and therefore access to support is granted to the entire national economy. The monthly amount of the aid shall be (a) if the gross wage of the employee according to the date of declaration of the state of emergency is HUF 670 000 or more, then HUF 318.920, or b) if the gross wage of the employee according to the date of the declaration of emergency is below HUF 670 000, the sum of HUF 318.920 calculated by the ratio between the employee’s gross wage and HUF 670 000. The employer had to (a) present in his application for assistance the economic circumstances on which the application was based, their direct and close connection with the state of emergency, the measures taken and expected so far to overcome the economic difficulties, (b) he had to declare that his employee named in the application could not receive short-time work allowance at the time of submitting the application for the same employment, c) that he was not entitled to a job-creating or job-preservation allowance for the worker covered by the application at the time of submission of the application, and (d) had been in operation for at least 6 months at the time the application was submitted. If the application complied with the legal requirements, the government office provided support to the employer on the basis of the application. When receiving the allowance, the employer had to undertake to (a) continue to employ the employee for a period at least equal to the duration of the allowance, (b) not to reduce the employee’s salary according to the date of the declaration of emergency during the period of the allowance and continued employment, c) notify the government office within two working days of any change affecting the conditions of the assistance within his obligation to cooperate and inform.