Home > Research and Education > Project contests > Project Call of Scholarships programme

Project Call of Scholarships programme

The State Education Development Agency (hereinafter – Agency) in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Latvia and the Norwegian Agency for International Cooperation and Quality Enhancement in Higher Education are pleased to open call for proposals under EEA and Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2014-2021 programme “Research and Education” activity “Scholarships”.

The main goal of the Scholarships Programme is to enhance research-based knowledge development through improving skills and competences of doctoral students, master’s, bachelor’s and professional study programme students, academic and administrative staff in higher education and research by promoting bilateral cooperation and exchange in the field of higher education between Latvia and Donor States (Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein).

The programme will contribute to the reduction of economic and social disparities in the European Economic Area and to the strengthening of bilateral relations between the Donor States and Latvia through financial contributions in the field of higher education and research. The programme’s Expected outcome indicators, outputs and output indicators of the programme are available here.

The synergy between the Scholarships programme and the Baltic Research Programme will be promoted in order to increase the scope of impact of research projects. Projects from the Baltic Research Programme are encouraged to combine the research and scholarship activities and involve PhD students and master’s and bachelor’s students in joint research projects. Scholarships project applications that foresee synergy with already granted research projects under Latvian call of the Baltic Research Programme will have a higher acceptance priority.

Project promoter is an accredited Latvian higher education institution. In the project shall be involved at least one higher education institution from Donor States (Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein).

Proposals are submitted by the Project promoters electronically to the Agency via online submission system rsgrants.viaa.gov.lv. The online submission system is available for the Project promoter as of 10 February 2021. The deadline for submission of proposals is 12 April 2021 at 23.59 (EET).

The rules and procedures for submission of proposals are described in the Guide for Applicants available here.

The eligible duration of the projects is 12 months, 24 months or 30 months. The projects are planned to be started from 3rd quarter 2021, but not before the date on which the Agency decides to award the project grant. The date for the final eligibility of expenditure in the projects is 30 April 2024.

The minimum programme grant amount per project is € 10 000, the maximum up to € 200 000.

The total programme amount available in the call is € 1 582 866.

Grants from the Programme may be up to 100% of total eligible project costs.

There are two mobility types eligible under Scholarships programme:

1. student mobility for a period between 3 and 11 months;
2. academic and administrative staff mobility for a period between 1 and 4 weeks.

Eligible project costs are based on the standard scales of unit costs applied to the following project budget categories: travel and subsistence costs for student, academic and administrative staff mobility, project administrative costs. If mobility participant is a person with disability, the additional costs shall be eligible 100% as the actual costs of the project. Project costs are eligible if they are justified, necessary and appropriate, and directly related to the project.

The rules and procedures for evaluation of proposals are described in the Guide for Evaluators available here.

Proposals are evaluated by two independent experts following the consensus report on which the preliminary ranking list is drafted to be submitted to the Selection Committee. The Agency will take into account the recommendations of the Selection Committee on which proposals to select for funding and final awarding of grants. 

After approval of the project and signing the project contract, the Agency shall transfer advance payment to the beneficiary as follows: 80% of the total project costs, if the duration of the project is 12 months; 40% of the total project costs, if the duration of the project is 24 or 30 months. 

FURTHER INFORMATION

References (in English):

1) Guidelines of the call for project proposals including selection criteria (also in Latvian) can be found here;

5) Guidelines for Applicants can be found here;

6) Guidelines for Evaluators can be found here;

7) Expected outcome indicators, outputs and output indicators of the Scholarships programme can be found here.

The questions and queries concerning the call for the project proposals please send to eezstipendijas@viaa.gov.lv.