General questions
Who is eligible to apply for a grant?
Application can be submitted by any student of the daily form of doctoral (PhD) study in the standard duration of the study (except the students in the last year of the PhD study) whose training workplace is one of the SAS organisations. Applications can be submitted only by sole investigator; these grants are not intended for the research teams. Student, whose project from previous year was evaluated with a result of not achieving its objectives, is not eligible to apply for another grant or its application will not be evaluated.
What duration the grant is provided for?
Grant is provided for a duration of one calendar year, i. e. from 1. 1. till 31. 12.
Preparation and submission of application
How can I submit my application for a grant?
Application for a grant is submitted via online system accessible from the Programme webpage. Registration through the web form is necessary before the first login. Signed hard copy of the application generated from the system is sent by the mail to the address: Office of the Slovak Academy of the Sciences – Department of the Research and Development, Stefanikova 49, 814 38 Bratislava 1, Slovakia.Hard copy shall be sent at last 3 working days after the online submission of the application.
What happened if I do not fill in all parts of the application?
All parts of the application are obligatory. In case some of them will not be filled in, application will not be evaluated.
Evaluation of applications
Who evaluates the application?
Applications for a grant are evaluated by the members of the Evaluation Committee. Each application belongs into the relevant subsection of the Evaluation Committee and all applications within this subsection are assessed by the responsible member of the Evaluation Committee. If it is necessary for proper evaluation of the application, external evaluator may be assigned.
Can I appeal if I do not agree with evaluation of my application?
Appeal against the decision of the P SAS on the application ranking and henceforth on the providing/non-providing of the grant is not possible. In case of the doubt whether with the application was handled in objective manner or in a doubt of bias or conflict of interests, complaint can be addressed to the Chairman of the Evaluation Committee. Applicant will be informed on the results of the complaint investigation.
Financial questions
What is the maximum amount of the grant?
Maximum amount of the grant is 2000 Euro. In case the application for a grant will be ranked into the category B after the evaluation and if sufficient financial resources are available, project will be funded in the reduced halved amount of 1000 Euro.
How can I use financial resources of the grant?
Financial resources of the grant are of the 630 category (current expenditure). Financial resources can be used for consumables, services, travel and conference costs, publication costs or machine time. All expenditures must be related to the project funded from the grant. Travel costs associated with the attendance at the conference will be considered as eligible up to 50% of the grant amount. Travel costs associated with the collecting of the experimental material, specimens, archives visits, visits to the collaborating organisation due to the experience exchange or experiments can be, if dully justified in the application, considered as eligible up to 100% of grant amount. Financial resources of the grant cannot be used to cover indirect costs, capital expenditures or remuneration.
When the funds will be transferred to the organisation?
Approved amount of funds will be transferred to the organisation during February of the year in which the project is implemented. Subsequently, organisation makes the funds available to the grant holder. He/she is obliged to draw the funds in compliance with the valid Slovak legislation, internal regulations and procedures of the training workplace.
Implementation of the project
Is it possible to interrupt the project investigation?
No, it is not possible to interrupt the project investigation, since the duration of it is only 1 year with clearly defined start and end date. It is possible to terminate the project earlier.
May be the grant transferred to another organisation?
No, grant is non-transferable. Funded project must be realised within the organisation which is a training workplace of the PhD student. However, PhD student is entitled to realised part of his/her project (maximum 3 months) at the collaborating workplace (national or foreign).
How is the project realisation evaluated?
Project realisation is evaluated on the basis of the final report that is submitted by the grant holder by the January 31 of the next year. Final report is evaluated by the respective member of the Evaluation Committee. After its assessment he or she decide whether the objectives of the project have been achieved or not.
