The Agricultural Biotechnology Center (ABC) was founded by the Ministry of Agriculture in 1989 based upon the realization that biotechnology and its application are the key factors in the future competitiveness of the Hungarian agriculture. Today, the institute is supervised by the Ministry of Rural Development (MRD). ABC is the largest institute among the research organizations sponsored by MRD with 126 employees, 60 of which belong to the scientific staff, including graduate students in various PhD programmes and visiting scientists from European and other countries.