IMPULZ 2021 call for applications

The Presidium of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAS Presidium) approved the current Call for Applications for the IMPULZ Programme on 8th April 2021.

• Date of the call announcement: 26th April 2021
• Deadline for the submission of applications: 30th June 2021, 23:59 CEST (21:59 UTC/GMT)
• Estimated deadline for the applications’ evaluation results: October 2021
• stimated beginning of the projects’ implementation: December 2021

The IMPULZ Programme aims to improve the excellence of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAS) and its research institutes by recruiting internationally recognized scientists and highly talented young researchers either from abroad or within Slovakia. The task for the excellent scientists will be to create and manage their own research groups which will work on new research directions in line with the current world trends. The Programme will provide excellent scientists with the incentives for their cutting-edge research and it will bring an improvement to the SAS research institutes in their research capacity and scientific outputs. The IMPULZ Programme should improve the excellence, internationalization, inter- disciplinarity and competitiveness of SAS in the European Research Area, among other things, by increasing its chances to receive the prestigious European grants.

Eligibility criteria

The applicants and applications must meet the eligibility criteria as stipulated in the Statute of the IMPULZ Programme. In short:

• The applicant must hold a PhD at the time of application (or equivalent).
• The applicant must demonstrate sufficient research experience gained at a foreign research institute. Either s/he obtained a PhD degree or completed a long-term stay outside Slovakia, usually not shorter than 2 years.
• The applicant must prove that s/he regularly publishes in quality scientific journals in the given scientific field; that s/he has been repeatedly invited
• to present her/his scientific results at important international conferences;
• and that s/he has been a leading researcher of a scientific project.
• (In case of a young researcher) The applicant must prove an autonomy from the thesis advisor by providing a list of publications which were not co-authored by the advisor. Moreover, the proposed topic of the project must be different from the topic of the applicant’s thesis.
• The applicant must demonstrate a capability to lead a proposed research team as well as an ability to obtain other competitive resources for research in the long term.

Application procedure

The application must be written in English, submitted via the online application system and addressing all the points stipulated in the Guide for Applicants.

The application must include an opinion of a host organization (SAS research institute) as for the whole duration of the project, the applicant must be a full-time employee of a SAS research institute which will serve as a host organization for the project implementation.

Evaluation of applications

The applications will be evaluated in two rounds. In the first round, after the check of compliance with the eligibility criteria, technical and formal requirements, the IMPULZ Programme Evaluation Committee (IPEC) will review the applicant’s curriculum vitae, the extended abstract of the project and the opinion of the host organization (SAS research institute). The selected applications will be evaluated in the second round, during which the entire project will be reviewed by the IPEC based on the consensus reports of three independent foreign evaluators. A face- to-face or online interview will be held only if requested by the IPEC or SAS Presidium. Based on the above-mentioned steps, the IPEC will recommend the selected applicants for funding to the SAS Presidium, which will make the final decision. The detailed information, including the evaluation criteria, can be found in the Statute of the IMPULZ Programme.

Implementation of projects

A selected project could ask for funding ranging from 60,000 to 160,000 EUR per year. The eligible project costs include personnel costs, travel costs, material costs, research infrastructure, publishing costs including Open Access, and services. The selected applicants will be employed by a SAS research institute, which will provide funding for the indirect project costs.

During the project implementation, a mid-term project evaluation will be carried out. Only in case of a positive outcome – i.e. fulfilment of the pre-set conditions – the project will continue to be financed. The mid-term project evaluation will

take into account also any prospects of project co-financing from other non-SAS resources – e.g. a Horizon Europe project proposal (with a special emphasis on the ERC grant scheme), or another prestigious foreign grant with a comparable funding to the ongoing IMPULZ project.

PROJECT WEBSITE

Information from: SAS