National scholarship programme of the slovak republic
More details :
The Government of the Slovak Republic approved the establishment of the National Scholarship Programme of the Slovak Republic for the support of mobility of students, PhD students, university teachers, researchers and artists in 2005. The National Scholarship Programme of the Slovak Republic (NSP) is funded by the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic and by the European Union – NextGenerationEU.
The National Scholarship Programme of the Slovak Republic supports mobility of international students, PhD students, university teachers, researchers and artists for scholarship stays at higher education institutions and research organisations in Slovakia.
Eligibility :
Eligible applicants for a scholarship in the framework of the NSP:
A) students who:
are university students at universities outside Slovakia;
are students of the second level of higher education (master's students), or are students who at the time of application deadline have already completed at least 2.5 years of their university studies in the same study programme;
will be on a study stay in Slovakia during their higher education outside Slovakia and who will be accepted by a public, private or state university in Slovakia for an academic mobility1 to study in Slovakia.
All 3 conditions must be met. This category does not apply to doctoral (PhD) studies (or their equivalent).
Duration of a scholarship stay (students): 1 – 2 full semesters (i.e. 4 – 5 or 9 – 10 months) or full 1 – 3 trimesters, in case the academic year is divided into trimesters (i.e. 3 – 4 or 6 – 7 or 9 – 10 months).
B) PhD students whose higher education or scientific training takes place outside Slovakia and who are accepted by a public, private or state university or a research institution in Slovakia eligible to carry out a doctoral study programme2 (e.g. the Slovak Academy of Sciences) for an academic mobility1 to study/conduct research/artistic stay in Slovakia.
Duration of a scholarship stay (PhD students): 1 – 10 months.
C) international university teachers, researchers and artists who are invited to a teaching/research/artistic stay in Slovakia by an institution with a valid certificate of eligibility to carry out research and development, which is not a business company3 and it has its seat in Slovakia.
Duration of a scholarship stay (university teachers, researchers or artists): 1 – 10 months.
[1] Section 58a of the Act No. 131/2002 on higher education institutions, as amended.
[2] External education institution according to the Act No. 131/2002 on higher education institutions, as amended.
[3] Legal entity according to the section 7 letters a) – c) of the Act No. 172/2005 on organisation of state research and development funding, as amended, which has a valid certificate of eligibility to carry out research and development according to the section 26a article 11 or article 12 of the same Act – i.e. public, private or state universities, research institutions eligible to carry out a doctoral (PhD) study programme (i.e. external education institutions), Slovak Academy of Sciences and its institutes, departmental research institutes or non-governmental organisations carrying out research and development.
Required documents :
In case of international students (eligible applicants under the category A):
curriculum vitae;
motivation letter;
detailed study programme (it is necessary to state the date of the beginning of the stay, duration of the stay, list of subjects that the applicant would like to study during his/her stay and number of credits that the applicant will gain for the respective subjects);
two recommendation letters issued by applicant’s university teachers (the document must contain signature, position and contact details of the person who issued the document; if it is not possible to issue a recommendation on the letterhead paper of the respective institution, the document has to contain a clear identification of the institution, which the person who issued the recommendation letter is affiliated with [generally the name of the institution, address, website link]); recommendation letters cannot be older than 3 months on the day of the application deadline;
confirmation issued by the applicant’s home university confirming that the applicant is a regular student of the respective university at the time of applying – the confirmation must contain information on the expected date of the completion of applicant’s studies;
In the event that due to extraordinary circumstances caused by force majeure, the applicant cannot obtain a confirmation of studies from his/her university, the applicant may submit a declaration of honor that he/she is a student of the respective university instead. In the declaration the applicant indicates the reasons why he/she failed to obtain the document, indicates the year and the level of study (i.e. bachelor or master studies / other equivalent) and also the date of expected completion of this study. If such an applicant is to be awarded a scholarship, he/she is obliged to submit an official confirmation from the university corresponding to the declared information about studies before the official letter of award is issued to the applicant. The deadline for submitting the confirmation will set by the scholarship programme administrator.
scan of applicant’s bachelor’s diploma, diploma supplement and state examination certificate (if applicable);
admission/invitation letter issued by applicant’s host university in Slovakia indicating the period of stay.
in case of international PhD students (eligible applicants under the category B):
curriculum vitae;
motivation letter;
detailed study/research/artistic programme (it is necessary to state the date of the beginning of the stay, duration of the stay and a detailed time plan of the stay);
recommendation letter issued by applicant’s dissertation supervisor (the document must contain signature, position and contact details of the person who issued the document; if it is not possible to issue the recommendation letter on an institution's letterhead paper, the document has to contain a clear identification of the institution, which the person who issued the recommendation letter is affiliated with [generally the name of the institution, address, website link]); recommendation letter cannot be older than 3 months on the day of the application deadline;
confirmation issued by the applicant’s home university/research organisation confirming that the applicant is on the application deadline a regular PhD student of the respective university/research organisation– the confirmation must contain information on the expected date of the completion of applicant’s PhD studies;
In the event that due to extraordinary circumstances caused by force majeure, the applicant cannot obtain a confirmation of PhD studies, the applicant may submit a declaration of honor that he/she is a PhD student instead. In the declaration the applicant indicates the reasons why he/she failed to obtain the document, and also indicates the current year of his/her PhD study and the date of expected completion of this study. If such an applicant is to be awarded a scholarship, he/she is obliged to submit an official confirmation of PhD studies corresponding to the declared information about PhD studies before the official letter of award is issued to the applicant. The deadline for submitting the confirmation will be set by the scholarship programme administrator.
scan of applicant’s master’s diploma, diploma supplement and state examination certificate (if applicable);
admission/invitation letter issued by applicant’s host university/research organisation in Slovakia indicating the period of stay.
in case of international university teachers/researchers/artists (eligible applicants under the category C):
curriculum vitae;
detailed teaching and/or research/artistic programme (it is necessary to state the date of the beginning of the stay, duration of the stay and a detailed time plan of the stay);
scan of applicant’s diploma of the highest academic degree achieved;
list of publications/artistic activities in the required form
invitation letter issued by applicant’s host university/research organisation in Slovakia indicating the period of stay.
How to apply :
Applicants are recommended not to submit their applications at the last moment. Number of operations executed within the last minutes prior to the application deadline may influence the reaction time of the application system. Please, keep that in mind, in order not to miss the application deadline. In such case, the programme administrator does not take any responsibility if the applicant does not submit his/her application.Applicants are allowed to submit (fill in) applications and the required attachments in Slovak or English language only (in case of documents written in other languages6 the application must contain the original documents together with their official translation into Slovak or English language – translation can be certified by the same institution that issued the respective document; if, due to extraordinary circumstances caused by force majeure, it is not possible to provide an official translation, the scholarship programme administrator may also accept unofficial translations made by the applicant herself/himself, but if such an applicant will be awarded a scholarship, before the official letter of award is issued and sent to him/her, he/she will be obliged to submit an official translation corresponding to the unofficial translation – the deadline for submitting the official document is to be set by the scholarship programme administrator.In case of documents, that are attached to the application and that are issued by a person other than the applicant (e.g. recommendation letters, confirmations of study, diploma/diploma supplement/state examination certificate, admission/invitation letter) it is necessary to upload the scan of these documents to the online application. The applicant is obliged to keep and archive all originals of documents that he/she has attached to the online application in electronic format, and if requested, to submit these originals (or certified copies of these originals) to the programme administrator. In the event that due to extraordinary circumstances caused by force majeure (without the fault of the applicant and the person / institution that has issued the requested document) it is not possible to obtain originals of the documents from persons responsible for issuing the document, it is also possible to upload into the online system scans of documents while originals are being kept by the author - in this case, unless otherwise specified, the applicant is obliged to obtain and keep the original before leaving his/her country, in order to present it to the scholarship programme administrator if necessary. Exceptionally, i.e. in the event of extraordinary circumstances caused by force majeure (without the fault of the applicant and the person / institution that has issued the requested document), certificates, resp. documents missing the signature of the person who has issued them (resp. missing the official confirmation of the institution), may also be accepted, provided that the content of the document is in line with these terms and indicates, that it is a statement of a relevant legal or natural person (e.g. e-mail from the respective person with the required content or an informative extract from the university's electronic system without a signature from the responsible person, etc.). If the applicant has been awarded a scholarship, he/she is obliged to submit documents, which are signed by the responsible person and correspond by their content to the documents submitted in the application to the scholarship programme administrator at the latest by the deadline set by the scholarship programme administrator.If the applicant is reapplying for a scholarship because his/her previous stay supported by the scholarship was substantially influenced by extraordinary circumstances caused by force majeure (e.g. due to force majeure the stay had to be terminated earlier, or the stay was completed, but the planned programme could not be fully implemented e.g. due to the closure of the institutions as a preventive measure, or the stay could not be conducted at all and for that reason the applicant cancelled the scholarship which had been awarded to him/her) and he/she wishes to continue or resume the approved stay, he/she is required to indicate all facts and extraordinary circumstances explicitly in his/her application.