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The Recovery Plan is a comprehensive grant scheme document that focuses on multiple priorities targeting the main economic challenges and key societal issues in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the main priorities is science, research and innovation. This part is aimed at strengthening human resources and supporting innovation. The support is primarily aimed at building research capacities and cooperation with industry, which should lead to scientific progress and increase the country's competitiveness at the international level.

Unfortunately, it took several years for the Recovery Plan to be launched. The issuing of calls for science and research was preceded by several complications and problems that persist to this day. Even though the bureaucratic duties of the applicants have been minimized, the evaluation process takes a disproportionately long time - 6 months or more.

In the last few years, there has been a shortage of EU grants for science and research in Slovakia. Several schools, research institutes and the industrial sector were waiting for their opportunity. In 2023, the first grants for this priority were announced. The first important segment was researchers involved or involved in Horizon 2020/Horizon Europe projects. Another big support was targeted at building top teams with international research. However, the greatest interest was in the call for support of basic and applied research carried out in Slovakia by excellent domestic and foreign researchers in the R2 to R4 career phase. The call aimed to support excellent scientists across all sectors of research and development in Slovakia. The purpose of the call was to attract top foreign researchers and to prevent the drain of domestic top scientists abroad.

Up to 700 different applicants showed interest in this call. Researchers from the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry SAS submitted 12 projects. Eleven projects received a positive evaluation and seven also received financial support. Almost each of these projects will last two years and a has budget of more than EUR 100,000.

No less significant is the successful project of Ing. Peter Tatarka, PhD. “New generation of thermoelectric materials for sustainable energy", which was placed among the sixteen funded projects of the call aimed at maintaining and supporting individual excellent researchers and their teams in the implementation of research at research institutes in Slovakia.

The Institute of Inorganic Chemistry SAS is still waiting for the evaluation of calls aimed at digitalization, decarbonization, matching grants to resources obtained from the private sector as part of research cooperation and matching grants to resources obtained as part of the Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe programs. However, the researchers already managed to obtain more than €3.5 million from the Recovery Plan to finance their two-year long research.

In conclusion, we can say that the Recovery Plan is becoming another important tool to support the modernization of Slovakia in key areas such as the green economy, education, research, health and digitization of public administration. Its use will help to achieve significant results that will improve the quality of life and the competitiveness of the country. Thanks to these measures, it is possible to strengthen innovative capacities, solve long-term social challenges and contribute to sustainable development. However, challenges remain, especially in the efficiency of the use of funds and the implementation of reforms. The success of the Recovery Plan will depend on continuous support, effective project implementations and adaptation of the strategy to new challenges.

Edited by Patrícia Petrisková, The Institute of Inorganic Chemistry SAS

Foto: canva.com