VAIA Launches Call to Support Research and Innovations for €90 million

 Bratislava, June 13 (TASR) - The Government Office's Research and Innovation Authority (VAIA) has launched a call for support of research, development and innovations amounting to €89.94 million, Vice-premier for Recovery and Resilience Plan Livia Vasakova together with VAIA general director Michaela Krskova and VAIA programme section's head Daniel Straka announced at a news conference on Tuesday.
       Its aim is to transform key sectors of the economy, support their development and interconnect entities engaged in the innovative ecosystem, the academic sector, research and development organisations with the private sector and with innovative partners from abroad.
       "We in Slovakia face several structural problems in the field of innovation, such as fragmentation of management, insufficient cooperation between the private and academic sectors, or underfinancing," stated Vasakova. She added that more than €0.5 billion has been allocated for 20 calls under the component, with the biggest one being announced on Tuesday.
       The aim of the call is to strengthen the research and innovation environment in Slovakia by supporting a smaller number of thematically-defined transformation and innovation consortia that will connect public and private entities from Slovakia with top foreign institutions. There will be a maximum of eight consortia, which should generate real results of cooperation in the form of particular solutions to economic and social problems.
       The consortia, to which financial support will be allocated, will be evaluated based on three basic criteria. "The evaluators will check criteria, such as the excellence of the project, the potential impact or size of the problem it solves, and the implementation, meaning the ability to carry out the project as planned," said Krskova.
       The aim of the call, among other things, is to support a small number of projects with a larger sum than usually. "The minimum sum of allocation for the project in this case is €10 million and the ceiling is €15 million. It all has to happen within two and a half years," said Straka. Selected consortia must be comprised at least of three partners who must be engaged in various sectors. At least one partner must be engaged in the academic sector, such as a Slovak university, while the second partner must be a firm or a businessman and the third partner must be a top foreign institution.