Call for applications under the Grant Programme for SAS PhD students in 2024

SAS Presidium on its session on 5/9/2024 approved Call for applications under the Grant Programme for SAS PhD students in year 2024.

• Date of call announcement: 6/1/2024
• Deadline for submission of applications: 8/31/2024
• Deadline for applications evaluation results: December 2024
• Duration of project´s implementation: 1/1/2025 – 12/31/2025

The Grant programme for SAS PhD students is the SAS activity with intend to support scientific projects for students of a daily form PhD study carried out within SAS organizations. The aim is to financially support high-quality project proposals, which will be implemented during PhD studies as a coherent part of projects and which can be realized within one year.

Eligibility criteria

A grant application can be submitted by any daily form PhD student who will be throughout the calendar year (1/1 – 12/31) following the year of the announcement of the call, daily form PhD student, carrying out the study of standard length within SAS organization as an external educational institution. The grant application is submitted by the student as a sole investigator, research teams are not eligible to submit an application.

The eligibility criterion for all grant applicants within the Grant programme for SAS PhD Students is the completion of the Training on scientific integrity and ethics of scientific work organized by the SAS Ethics Committee. These trainings will be realized during year 2024 onsite or online. If the grant applicant will not attend the training, his project will be rejected from the funding opportunities independently from the evaluation results.

PhD scholarship recipients (R1) from the Recovery and Resilience Plan can apply for grant. They must indicate this fact in the application and, if successful, their projects will be financed outside the ESG scheme.

Application procedure

Grant applications are submitted through electronical system, which will be accessible via programme website (www.doktogrant.sav.sk). The paper version of application signed by relevant persons (applicant, supervisor, director of organization) shall be send to the address:

    Office of Slovak Academy of Sciences – Department of Science and Research
    Štefánikova 49
    814 38 Bratislava

The envelope must be marked with label: „Grants for SAS PhD students“. Paper version of application must be sent within 3 working days after submitting the electronic version. The stamp imprint on the envelope is decisive for accessing compliance with the deadline. The date of electronic submission of the application is decisive for the date of submission of the application.

More information on the structure of the application and its submission can be found in the Statute of the SAS Grant Programme for PhD students (hereinafter referred to as the “Statute“) and Guide for Applicants.

Evaluation of applications

After the deadline for submitting the applications, the staff of the Science and research department will evaluate the fulfilment of formal requirements as specified in Art. IV, paragraph 2 of the programme Statute. Those applications that do not meet stated requirements will not be further evaluated. Applications that advanced to the second round of evaluation, will be assessed by Evaluation Committee Member, responsible for the relevant scientific field where application belong. In justified events, the application may be evaluated by an external evaluator. After the expert evaluation follows the committee evaluation. Subsequently, the Evaluation Committee will propose the classifying of applications into categories, and the proposal will be approved by the SAS Presidium. Applicants and relevant organizations will be informed on the results. More detailed information on the evaluation of applications and the Evaluation Committee can be found in the Statute of the Programme and the Evaluation Committee Statute.

Funding of grants

The amount of grant is 3000 EUR for applications classified in category A or 1500 EUR for applications classified in category B. Grant funding can be used for goods, services, travel and conference expenses, expenses related to the publication results, or machine time. All expenditure must be related to a grant-funded project. Conference travel expenses will be eligible for up to 50% of the grant amount. Travel expenses related to the collection of experimental material or samples, visits to archives, visits to collaborative workplaces to exchange experience, eventually in order to carry out the experiment may be eligible expense if justified in the application and will be reimbursed up to 100% of the grant amount. Transfer between the budget articles - goods, services, travel expenses is possible up to 300 €. Higher budget transfer has to be approved by Evaluation Committee Member responsible for the scientific field where the investigator belongs and Chairwoman of the Evaluation Committee. The transfer application shall be sent to the e-mail address doktogrant@savba.sk. Funds in compliance with the modified budget can be spent only after the transfer approval. The non-consumables material purchased with grant funds is the property of the Institute.

Implementation of projects

The grant holder implements the project within one calendar year in the organization that is his/her host organisation. Grant holder is entitled to realize the project within another organization for a maximum period of 3 months. The project financed from the grant must be thematically related to the project solved by the grant holder during the doctoral study, while forming a comprehensive part, the results of which can be evaluated within the final project report. The grant holder always submits the report not later than on 31st January of the calendar year following the end of the project. If this day falls on a non-working day or holiday, the deadline is shifted to the next working day.

The final report should contain a brief evaluation of the results of the project, which have been achieved during its implementation, regarding the declared objectives. If the planned objectives have not been met, it must be justified. The final report should include a list of outputs such as presentations at conferences and articles in scientific journals. Copies of published outputs, including the abstracts from conferences are to be attached to the final report. Publications are not a criterion for the success of a project, since in most cases one year is a short time for publication output. Outputs that include data obtained within the project should also include an acknowledgment of the project. The final report includes also a summary of the expenses. It is necessary to specify amount and usage of money used within each category. For consumables, defining of categories is sufficient (e. g. disposable plastic), there is no need to list all the goods. For conference costs, the name, time, venue of the conference, title, and the authors of the paper must be stated. For other travel costs, the purpose, location, and duration must be stated.