The IKU was founded in 1991 by the Budapest University of Economic Sciences (Budapest Corvinus University as of September, BCE) for helping to shape innovation policy through research and education and, within this, to improve international competitiveness in Hungary. Since 2007 IKU is separated from the University and joined to a think tank organisation, Financial Research Corp.

Research is the main strength of the activity carried out in the Innovation Research Centre but the organization attaches great importance to disseminating the scientific research findings amongst academic, business-economic and government decision-makers in Hungary and abroad.

In one and a half decade the Centre has become an internationally recognized research location, which is marked by the fact that it has been member of the PRIME Network of Excellence ("Policies for Research and Innovation in the Move towards the European Research Area"), supported by the 6th RTD Framework Programme of the EU. (www.prime-noe.org) IKU was also the co-founder of CIPRE, the Centre for Innovation Policy Research and Education which was run jointly with AAAS. IKU has done regularly contract researches and background reports to policy-making for relevant Hungarian governmental agencies and various international organisations (OECD, EC/EU, UNESCO, World Bank, WIPO, NATO). IKU has been able to acquire research grants for pure scientific work. IKU staff continues its activity in university education.