Education Ministry to Support Research in Enterprises with €200 mn

Bratislava, February 8 (TASR) – The Education, Science, Research and Sport Ministry will financially support the stimulation of research potential in enterprises, the need for practical experience, the intensification of cooperation between the entrepreneurial and academic sectors and the transfer of knowledge from research into practice, ministry spokesperson Beata Dupalova Ksenzsighova informed TASR on Monday.

A total of €200 million from the new Operational Programme Research & Innovations will be accessible for the entrepreneurial sector in cooperation with science-research institutions, the Slovak Academy of Sciences, universities and non-governmental organisations.

Projects aimed at creating a long-term partnerships between enterprises and research institutions or at strengthening existing partnerships will receive support. Projects should also facilitate an improvement in the quality of research at universities, the Slovak Academy of Sciences and other research institutions. It should make research more practice-oriented.

The aim is to achieve concrete results that can be put in practice in economic priority areas such as the automobile industry, information and communication technologies, electrical engineering and the steel industry.

The project also envisages the involvement of foreign experts and the reintegration of Slovak researchers and scientists from abroad.

Applicants will be able to ask for grants of between €1-7 million for projects lasting between three-six years.

The Research Agency under the auspices of the ministry has already called for a third set of demand-oriented project proposals within OP Research & Innovations (on February 3).