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Slovakia welcomes excellent scientists from all over the world.  Today, June 1, 2022, the SAS opened a call for applications for the IMPULZ 2022 grant programme.  Internationally recognized scientists and highly talented young researchers once again have the opportunity to implement their scientific goals in Slovakia under conditions approaching a prestigious European grant.  Selected projects can apply for funding in the amount of up to 160, 000 € per year.  The call is open until midnight on August 31, 2022, and the project is expected to start in March 2023.

The Slovak Academy of Sciences has launched the IMPULZ grant scheme for the second time. Its goal is to attract a new generation of quality scientific leaders to SAS research workplaces, increase their internationalization and competitiveness, research excellence and, last but not least, success in obtaining prestigious European grants. 

"SAS needs to look for new talented scientists with topics that are on the verge of knowledge. It also aims to find young people who will be able to apply for ERC projects, which are considered to be the most important in the scientific research area,” emphasizes the President of the SAS prof.  Pavol Šajgalík.

The role of researchers will be to create and manage their own research groups. The scheme will provide them with motivating conditions for their research and will bring to the SAS scientific organizations the improvement of the research environment and scientific outputs.

Researchers with a PhD degree or equivalent titles who regularly publish in major scientific journals, have been repeatedly invited to present their results at major international conferences and have been the responsible researcher of a scientific project can apply for the grant. Applicants must also demonstrate sufficient research experience gained at a foreign research institute. They either obtained a PhD degree or have completed a long-term stay outside the Slovak Republic, usually not shorter than 2 years. Younger researchers must demonstrate independence from the dissertation supervisor by listing publications that are not co-authored by the supervisor. The proposed topic of the project must also differ from the topic of the applicants' dissertation.

Successful applicants can receive a grant of up to 160 thousand euros per year. Eligible project costs include labour costs, travel costs, material costs, research infrastructure, publication costs, etc. The selected applicants will be employed at individual SAS institutes, which will ensure the financing of indirect project costs.

SAS currently provides specific support to researchers through several programmes, such as Compensatory allowance, Štefan Schwarz Fund and SASPRO2/MoRePro. Current support from multiple programmes is not possible.

The SAS opened the IMPULZ grant scheme for the first time in 2021. 34 applicants from all over the world applied for the first call. SAS supported 3 projects, the solution of which begins in 2022.

More information about the IMPULSE scheme, as well as the complete wording of the call, can be found at: https://impulz.sav.sk/.