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• May 1989–May 1990 Minister of Culture and Education. Proposals and measures linked with his name: the abolition of the compulsory education of Russian as a foreign language in public and higher education, the abolition of censure, the re-regulation of the relationship between the state and the Church; the elaboration and introduction of a new decree on research based on Western European principles; authorisation of private school founding with the annulment of the state monopoly of school founding; the coordination of alternative educational systems with the state system in public education and the elaboration of its financing and monitoring framework; the abolition of the education of ideological subjects; the conveyance of party educational institutions to the educational system of the state and associations; the educational preference of foreign languages in teacher training; the construction of an alternative financing system for culture (education, films and the publication of books etc.)
• 1990-1998 President of the Scientific Council of the László Teleki Foundation.
• 1990- Founding President of the Advisory Board of the Pro Renovanda Cultura Hungariae Foundation, developing the guiding principles and organisational structure of the foundation system. (Founders and members of the Advisory Board are Domokos Kosáry, János Szentágothai (†), Miklós Vásárhelyi (†), Sándor Csoóri, György Konrád, Tibor Király, Antal Stark, Mária Honti.)
• 1991-2004 Member of the international committee established by the Bertelsmann Stiftung aimed at exploring the social and political conditions of European integration as well as the international committee responsible for the Eastern enlargement of the European Union; member and rapporteur of the subcommittees responsible for human policy, minority policy, European history, cultural and scientific policy.
• 1994-1998 Participates in the work of the committee responsible for the scientific (political-economic, cultural-scientific and social) monitoring of EU candidate countries as rapporteur of minority issues, history, cultural and scientific policy (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary).
• 1996-2002 President of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in two subsequent periods. As President he initiates the reform of scientific policy and consequently the reform of the Academy. (His respective monograph entitled 'Tudománypolitika az ezredforduló Magyarországán [Scientific policy in Hungary at the Turn of the Millennium] is published in Hungarian in 1998 and in German in 1999.) He elaborates the details of the initiated consolidation process of the institutional network in lectures and studies published, which are later put to public debate. • The National Strategic Research Programme of the HAS is launched at his proposal. • At his initiative the government declared 3 November the Hungarian Science Day in its resolution 55/1997 (IV.3.) acknowledging the outstanding role that science plays in society. From 1997 the series of events organized on the Hungarian Science Day extended into a scientific festival lasting for several weeks. • In 1999 Ferenc Glatz delivers the keynote lecture at the first World Conference on Science organised by the HAS in Budapest. His lecture entitled A tudomány a 21. században (Science in the 21st Century) focuses on natural and cultural diversity and the use of science. • In 2001 he writes a study on the emancipation of the theology academy; and based on an agreement with Hungarian churches, church scientists are admitted to the General Assembly of the HAS.
• 1996- Founding President of the Programme Committee of the National Strategic Research Programme of the HAS (renamed National Strategic Studies after 2002). The objectives of this initiative are the exploration of opportunities for the state and Hungarians, the identification and analysis of necessary internal reforms, the elaboration of a national strategy and action plan in the age of information technology and globalisation. Proposals and projects attributed to him are the scientific analysis of the state of affairs and the elaboration of action plans concerning agriculture, environment management and environment protection, water management, the Hungarian language, Hungarian culture beyond the borders, European integration and science policy, language policy, transport, rural development and social policy systems etc. (The monograph series entitled Magyarország az ezredfordulón [Hungary at the Turn of the Millennium] and the periodical Ezredforduló are both meant to spread the research results to a wider public audience.)
• 1998- Founding patron and regular opener of the Jewish Summer Festival.
• 1999-2002 Member of the Szent Korona Testület (a council of leading public figures for the Protection of the Holy Crown).
• 2000 Delivers and publishes a lecture about the future of the European Union in human political terms on the 5th Europe Forum in Gütersloh. (The other two speakers are Jacques Delors, former President of the European Commission and Caio Koch-Weser, former Vice President of the World Bank.) The theses that he refers to in his lecture are expounded in detail at a scientific session organised by the University of Munich two months later (Az európai történelem újragondolása – Reconsidering the History of Europe).
• 2000 Prepares a study for the government concerning the prevention of floods on the River Tisza, the preservation of its water output and the improvement of water management in the Great Hungarian Plain. According to his proposal the 19th century principles of the management of the River Tisza have to be reconceptualised; a plan has to be elaborated about the reutilisation of the former 29 curves in the form of water reservoirs.
• 2001 Summarises his views on the European Union and languages in seven theses in his keynote speech delivered at the international conference held on the occasion of the International Year of European Languages.
• 2002- President of the Homeland Research Programme Committee of the Hungarian Science Abroad of the HAS, later Honorary President.
• 2003- Founding President of the expert Committee of Hungarian National and State Institutions and Symbols. (The members of which are Members of the HAS and leading figures of cultural life.) The tasks of the National Symbol Committee are to revise the regulations and practices concerning the use of state and national symbols and memorial places and to present a proposal in this subject matter. Respective proposals are the revision of the representation and placement of the symbols of legislative, law enforcement symbols and the ones attached to the power of the head of state; state award systems; state and national symbols; the revision of the scenes of celebrating state and national holidays from the aspect of multi-party and civil democracy; plans for the reconstruction and reutilisation of building complexes representing our national and state traditions, e.g. the Houses of Parliament, the former Royal Castle of Buda and the former Government Quarter. Based on the principle that the various branches of power should be divided, the Office of the President of the Republic moved to the former Sándor Palace from the house of legislation at the proposal of this committee.
• 2004- Founding President of the National Strategic Committee for Land and Water Management. (Members of the Committee include Members of the HAS – László Somlyódy, István Láng, Ferenc Kovács, György Várallyay, László Alföldi, Ferenc Ligetvári –, and secretaries of state delegated by the government.) The scope of the committee’s duties is to ensure the presence of a professional background supervision in the field of land and water management. Programmes include the continuous supervision of the main principles and programmes of the regulation of the River Tisza and the drafting of reports in this respect (2004); the provision of professional background consultation in order to avoid floods and inland inundations; constant professional cooperation within the committee. As President of the Committee he initiates the elaboration of a complex rural development programme for the Homokhátság (Sand Ridge) region in 2004, the basic thesis being that is can be proved historically that the population supply capacity of the region has been overburdened in the past hundred years and the natural erosion and desertification of the region can be attributed to the altered water management and climate conditions. As President of the committee he compiles a draft paper on a comprehensive, long- and short-term rural development project (2005). He also frames one version of the action plan.
• 2005- Initiates the movement Párbeszéd a vidékért (Dialogue for the Countryside), is President of the Programme Committee. (The Programme Committee includes heads and experts of scientific institutes specialised in agricultural and water management and rural development, as well as representatives of various parliamentary parties.) Its objectives include the elaboration of the principles of a complex rural policy that treats European norms and Hungary’s interest in unity. The civil initiative, which was later transformed into an association, organises several conferences in a year about the problems of the natural and constructed environment and about cultural and health care services.
• 2005- Initiates a programme for Balkan Studies and writes the draft paper concerning this programme. The objectives of this project are exploring the new opportunities of cooperation on European and Hungarian level emerging with the Eastern enlargement of the European Union, the elaboration of strategic programmes in the fields of transport, agriculture, regional development, trade and culture etc., the organisation of conferences, the compilation of studies and essays in this topic and the operation of an online periodical in Hungarian and English. The members of the Programme Committee and Programme Council include heads of the institutes of the Social Research Centre of the HAS, former members of government and businessmen.)
• 2006 As President of the National Strategic Committee for Land and Water Management he prepares a draft paper entitled Vízgazdálkodás a Kárpát-medencében (Water Management in the Carpathian Basin), which proves that based on the experience of the past hundred and fifty years it is essential for Hungary, a country lying in the bottom of the Carpathian Basin to elaborate a regional programme of water management for the entire basin, the catchment areas of rivers.