Scholarships and/or travel allowances (travel grant) are not legally enforceable; granting of the financial support from the NSP sources is influenced by meeting all the formal requirements of the programme according to the respective call for applications, applicant’s quality, content of applicant’s proposed stay and its necessity, and NSP budget availability related to the respective call for applications.
The applicant is responsible for the final completeness of the application and for the correctness of the information provided in the application and its annexes; due to sufficient time for the preparation of the application in the period between the opening of the electronic application system and the deadline for submitting the applications, as well as to the applicant's declaration when submitting the application, that all the information provided in the application is complete, actual and true and that the application is complete and contains all the required annexes and documents, the scholarship programme administrator is not obliged to give the applicant an opportunity to amend the application (the application is therefore assessed as submitted by the applicant).
SAIA, n. o., as the scholarship programme administrator, is responsible for the administration of the selection process. The programme administrator acts within each selection in a way to ensure equal treatment of applicants during the respective selection process.
The administrator will assess whether the applications meet the formal requirements of the programme on the day of the application deadline. The administrator may reject applications for formal reasons:
- if they are in conflict with the terms of the programme (in particular regarding the eligibility of applicants or scholarship holders, or in absence of an appropriate category of support), or
- if the application or its annexes do not meet the formal requirements, or
- if the facts presented in the application and its annexes are in conflict with each other, or
- if the administrator in the reviewing process finds out that the applicant's statements confirming that the information is complete, true and correct are not true.
When making its decision the administrator may consider whether that fact may have an essential influence on the content assessment ofthe application. The administrator may consult his/her findings with the Selection Committee. The administrator shall also take into account the recommendations and requirements of the Selection Committee from previous selection rounds.
Applications that have not been rejected by the administrator for formal reasons will be forwarded to the Selection Committee for further selection.
Selection of scholarship holders is carried out by the Selection Committee appointed by the Minister of Education, Science, Research and Sport of theSlovak Republic. The Committee focuses mostly on:
- reasons, why the applicant has decided to study, teach, conduct research or artistic activities in the respective host institution in Slovakia;
- programme of applicant’s study/research/artistic/teaching stay and how the applicant will use the results of his/her scholarship stay for further studies or research activities, or his/her career development;
- applicant’s professional and personal qualities; as well as assessment of the proposed programme of the scholarship stay in the recommendation letters;
- study or research achievements;
- contribution for the host institution;
- overall quality of the submitted application.
The Selection Committee may, with special regard, consider applications submitted by applicants who were awarded a scholarship but who have not started their approved scholarship stay due to force majeure (e.g. the Covid-19 pandemic) or had to shorten their stay due to force majeure, or under the influence of a situation caused by force majeure, the planned purpose could not be fully implemented. In such cases, compared to other applicants, the Selection Committee may proceed in a specific way, if it is considered necessary in the respective call for applications. However, any such application will be assessed individually in accordance with the terms of the programme and must be relevant in terms ofquality; it is not possible to approve such applications automatically solely because of the prior approval of the scholarship and the fact, that it has been negatively influenced by force majeure.
The administrator respects the selection of the scholarship holders carried out by the Selection Committee and grants scholarships in accordance with that selection. SAIA, n. o., will inform every applicant about being/not being granted financial support from NSP sources usually within 8 weeks from the application deadline.
Applicants who have been awarded a scholarship must submit the original of the admission/invitation letter. Eligible applicants under the category A) and B) (students and PhD students) are also obliged, in case of being awarded the scholarship, deliver original of confirmation on studies toSAIA, n. o., in Bratislava. This document will confirm that the scholarship holder is still a regular student or PhD student of the respective university/research organisation during his/her study/research stay in Slovakia (in case that the confirmation is issued in other than Slovak or English language, official translation of the document into one of aforementioned languages is required). Subsequently,SAIA, n. o., can issue a Letter of Award confirming the approval of thescholarship within the NSP and will send it by post to the scholarship holder together with other information and requirements for the scholarship payment. Only afterthe applicant, who has been awarded a scholarship delivers a written acceptance of the conditions of the scholarship to SAIA, n. o., a contractual relationship between SAIA, n. o., and the scholarship holder will be concluded.
If awarding of the scholarship is conditioned by submission of other documents in accordance with the terms of the programme, the Letter of Awardand other related documents can be sent only after the mentioned conditions have been met (the programme administrator decides whether the conditions have been met).
Any applicant who has reasonable grounds to suspect that the administrator or the Selection Committee made a mistake in the process of administering and assessing applications submitted within the respective application deadline is entitled to file a claim to re-examine the case no later than 1 month after publishing the results of selection of applications submitted within that deadline. Claims have to be submitted by the applicant in writing and addressed to SAIA, n. o., as the organization administering the programme. The claim must contain the applicant's identification data, the respective application number, reasons for objections (including facts which according to the applicant led to the mistake). SAIA, n. o. after reviewing the claim will inform the applicant of the result of the review process, usually within 1 month from the submission of the claim.