National Scholarship Programme of the Slovak Republic

The National Scholarship Programme of the Slovak Republic (NSP) pays a monthly scholarship to international students, PhD students, university teachers, researchers and artists for a stay at a university or research institution in Slovakia. The Ministry of Education, Research, Development and Youth of the Slovak Republic funds it from the state budget, and the Slovak Academic Information Agency (SAIA, n. o.) runs it. The programme has existed since 2005.

This page summarises the official terms for international applicants, which have applied to every call since the April 2025 deadline.

At a glance

Who can apply

Students

You can apply if you meet all three conditions:

1. You study at a university outside Slovakia.
2. You are a master’s (second-cycle) student, or by the deadline you have completed at least 2.5 years of university study in the same or a similar field.
3. A public, private or state university in Slovakia accepts you for a study stay during your studies at your home university.

A student stay lasts one or two full semesters, which means 4 to 5 or 9 to 10 months. Where the academic year has trimesters, it lasts one to three trimesters. PhD students apply in their own category.

PhD students

PhD students whose doctoral studies take place outside Slovakia can apply if a Slovak university or another institution entitled to run doctoral programmes, such as the Slovak Academy of Sciences, accepts them for a study, research or artistic stay. The stay lasts 1 to 10 months.

University teachers, researchers and artists

You can apply if a non-commercial institution based in Slovakia with a valid certificate of eligibility for research and development invites you for a teaching, research or artistic stay. This includes universities, institutes of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, research institutes of ministries and non-governmental research organisations. The stay lasts 1 to 10 months.

A month always means a full month counted from the first day of the stay, so a stay from 5 March to 4 April counts as one month.

Who cannot get the scholarship

• Students accepted for, or already enrolled in, a full degree programme in Slovakia. The NSP does not fund full bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral studies.
• Teachers, researchers and artists without a PhD and with more than four years of professional experience. In exceptional cases SAIA may accept up to seven years, at the lower monthly rate.
• Anyone who spent 15 months or more in Slovakia during the 36 months before the deadline.
• Anyone accepted for the stay under another publicly funded programme, such as Erasmus+, CEEPUS, the International Visegrad Fund or a bilateral agreement.

If you held an NSP scholarship before, at least two years must pass between the deadline under which you received it and the deadline of your new application. SAIA can make an exception mainly when force majeure, such as a pandemic or war, disrupted the earlier stay.

How much you get

Experience counts up to the application deadline. Doctoral study counts as experience for at most six years.

The scholarship covers living costs such as food and accommodation. It is paid monthly, usually to a bank account in a SEPA country.

Scholarship holders from outside the EU, the EEA and Switzerland who stay longer than 90 days on a temporary residence permit must give the foreign police a medical certificate within 30 days. SAIA refunds the cost of the examination up to €250 if you send the original invoice by the deadline for the final report.

Travel grant

Students and PhD students can also ask for a lump-sum travel grant. You request it in the same application, and it is paid together with the last monthly instalment. The amount depends on the straight-line distance between your home or home institution and your host institution in Slovakia.

SAIA calculates the distance with the European Commission’s Erasmus+ distance calculator. Teachers, researchers and artists do not get a travel grant.

Deadlines

There are two calls a year. Both close at 16:00 Bratislava time, which is CEST (UTC+2) on 30 April and CET (UTC+1) on 31 October.

• 30 April for stays during the following academic year.
• 31 October for stays during the summer semester of the current academic year.

Each applicant can submit one application per call. The online system opens at least six weeks before the deadline, and you cannot fill in the form before it opens.

The call for the summer semester 2026/27 closed on 31 October 2026. Stays from that call start between 1 February and 1 April 2027 for students, and between 1 February and 31 August 2027 for everyone else. The next deadline is 30 April 2027, for stays in the academic year 2027/28.

If you need a visa, leave enough time between the award and the start of your stay. The national visa procedure alone can take more than 40 days.

Documents

Documents must be in Slovak or English. Documents in other languages need an official translation, but documents in Czech can stay as they are. Letters of recommendation, confirmations of study and acceptance letters must not be older than three months on the deadline day. You upload scans and keep the originals, because SAIA may ask for them.

Students

• CV
• Motivation letter
• Detailed study programme: the host university, the dates of the stay, the subjects you will take and their credits. A semester usually means about 30 ECTS credits; explain any difference.
• Two letters of recommendation from your university teachers
• Official confirmation of study from your home university with your year of study, the standard length of your programme and the expected date of completion
• Bachelor’s diploma, diploma supplement and state examination certificate, if issued
• Acceptance letter from the Slovak university for the same period as in your application
• If you held an NSP student scholarship before, a transcript of records from that stay

PhD students

• CV and motivation letter
• Study, research or artistic programme with a time plan
• Letter of recommendation from your supervisor
• Official confirmation of your PhD study
• Master’s diploma and diploma supplement
• List of publications or artistic activities in the required template, or a statement that you have none
• Acceptance or invitation letter that shows the host’s real interest in your stay, not just a formal acceptance

Teachers, researchers and artists

• CV
• Teaching, research or artistic programme with a time plan
• Diploma of your highest academic degree
• List of publications or artistic activities in the required template
• Invitation letter that shows the host’s real interest in your stay

How to apply, step by step

1. Find a host department in Slovakia and agree on the dates and content of your stay.
2. Ask the host to issue an acceptance or invitation letter for exactly those dates.
3. Collect letters of recommendation and confirmations no earlier than three months before the deadline.
4. Once the online system opens, fill in the application at www.scholarships.sk, upload all attachments and press Send before 16:00 Bratislava time on the deadline day. Do not leave it to the last minute, as the system slows down before the deadline.
5. Make sure the original acceptance or invitation letter reaches SAIA, n. o., Sasinkova 10, 812 20 Bratislava, by 12:00 on the third working day after the deadline. Posting it in time is not enough; it has to arrive. Your host institution can deliver it for you, but if it arrives late, the consequences are the same as if you had sent it late yourself.

Selection and results

SAIA first checks the formal requirements. It does not have to give you a chance to complete a missing document, so check the application before you send it. A selection committee appointed by the ministry then compares the applications. It looks mainly at:

• why you chose the host institution in Slovakia,
• your programme and how you will use the results in your studies, research or career,
• your professional and personal qualities, including what your recommendations say,
• your study or research achievements,
• what your stay brings to the host institution,
• the overall quality and consistency of the application.

SAIA usually announces the results within eight weeks of the deadline. The committee may also keep a reserve list until the next deadline. If you believe there was a mistake in the selection, you can send SAIA a written complaint within one month of the publication of the results.

After the award

• SAIA sends you a Letter of Award with a binding scholarship offer.
• Before the first payment, you return a signed acceptance of the scholarship and a notarised copy of your highest diploma. Students and PhD students also send an original confirmation of study for the academic year of the stay.
• Payments start when SAIA has your bank details and a confirmation that your stay has begun. Bring enough money for the first weeks.
• A stay longer than six months needs an interim report. At the end, you submit a final report and a confirmation that you completed the stay. SAIA may hold back the last instalment and the travel grant until then.
• You cannot change the host institution and you cannot extend the scholarship. You can apply again later.

For the visa, health insurance and language courses, read Coming to Slovakia on a scholarship.

Contacts at SAIA

Questions about your application go to SAIA, not to this website:

• Students: nsp-foreign2@saia.sk, +421 2 5930 4736
• PhD students: nsp-sk@saia.sk, +421 2 5930 4738
• University teachers, researchers and artists: nsp-foreign@saia.sk, +421 2 5930 4733

Do you study at a Slovak university? The NSP also funds stays abroad for students and PhD students from Slovakia; see the guide in Slovak.

Frequently asked questions

Is scholarship.sk the official website of the programme?

No. The official website is www.scholarships.sk, with an “s” at the end. Many university websites link to www.scholarship.sk by mistake. This site explains the programme and sends you to the official application.

Do I need an acceptance letter before I apply?

Yes. Without a scan of the acceptance or invitation letter, the online system will not let you submit the application. Contact your future host well before the deadline.

Can I apply for the summer semester and for the next academic year at once?

Not in the same call. Each call allows one application per person. The October call covers the summer semester of the current academic year and the April call covers the following academic year.

Can the scholarship be extended once I am in Slovakia?

No. If you want to stay longer, you have to apply again in a later call, and the rules for repeated applications apply.