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Young researchers |
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Regulatory acts |
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Pursuant to Article 43 of the Research and Development Act (Official Gazette
of the Republic of Slovenia nos. 96/02, 115/05, and 22/06) and Articles 16 and
35 of the Decision on establishing the Public Research Agency of the Republic of
Slovenia (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia no. 132/03), based on the
prior approval of the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology no.
0071-2/2006/6 dated 27 January 2006, the Management Board of the Public Research
Agency of the Republic of Slovenia adopted, at its 21st session, held on 2
February 2006, the following
Rules on the Training and Financing of Young Researchers in Research Organisations
I. GENERAL PROVISIONS
Article 1
These Rules define the form of
research and development training and type of postgraduate study and the method
of placing young researchers with legal persons that are entered in the RO
databases at the Slovenian Research Agency and have institutional status (hereinafter:
Research Organisation), conditions for placement on training, the procedure for
the selection of mentors, financing and the method of monitoring training (hereinafter:
training).
The terms used in the masculine form in the Slovenian original of
these Rules shall refer neutrally to both men and women.
Article 2
The Slovenian
Research Agency (hereinafter: the Agency) shall finance the training of young
researchers in research organisations with the purpose of:
- providing new
research and research-teaching staff in research organisations;
- increasing the
research capacity of groups carried out programmes, basic, applied and research
development projects;
- increasing the human potential for other users from the
public and private sector.
Article 3
The Agency shall provide financing for the
training of young researchers.
Article 4
The Director of the Agency shall
approve the methodology on the procedure of assessing the mentor candidates on
the basis of the applicable National Research and Development Programme, budget
funds, and the guidelines of the ministry responsible for science determining
the number of young researchers by science disciplines and fields.
II. CALL
Article 5
The Agency shall publicly invite Research Organisations to propose
mentors who shall train young researchers.
Responses to the public call for
mentors may also be submitted by people, who hold a position in a research
organisation, acting as individuals.
Article 6
The public call for Research
Organisations and mentor candidates, who can also apply as individuals (hereinafter:
the Applicant), shall include:
- Name and address of the user of budgetary
funds;
- Legal basis for the implementation of the call;
- Subject of the call;
- Provision on the conditions to be met by the mentor candidates;
- Criteria
for evaluation;
- Call documents indicating the type of evidence that the
conditions are met;
- Method, form and deadline for submitting the applications;
- Deadline in which the Applicants will be informed of the selection of mentors;
- Place, time and name of the person where those interested can obtain the call
documents;
- Person in charge of providing information while the call is open;
Article 7
The Applicant shall apply to the call in accordance with the call
documents.
Data shall be submitted on the forms of call documents defined by the
Agency.
During the call, the Agency must enable the Applicants to access the
forms of call documents and issue them such forms of call documents on request.
The call documents must state all the data that enables the Applicant to
complete the application in a correct manner.
The forms and the methodology of
evaluating mentor candidates must be made publicly available on the Agency’s
website.
Article 8
The Director of the Agency shall charge an Official of the
Agency responsible for young researchers (hereinafter: the Official) to enter
the serial number and date of receipt of application on each application form
and to co-ordinate and organise the evaluation procedure, the selection
procedure and the monitoring of financing young researcher training.
Article 9
The Director of the Agency shall appoint a committee consisting of at least
three members to open and examine the applications in order to establish that
they have been marked correctly and that they have arrived on time (hereinafter:
the formal examination of applications).
Article 10
The committee in charge of
opening the applications shall work in sessions convened by the president of the
committee in charge of opening the applications.
Article 11
The committee in
charge of opening the applications shall open and formally review the received
applications within five days after the date defined in the call as the last day
for submitting the applications to the call, at the date, place and time stated
in the published call and call documents.
Verification minutes on the opening
and formal review of applications are recorded and signed by the president and
the members of the committee, and shall contain above all the following:
- Address, place and time of opening the applications;
- Subject of the
application;
- Names of the participating members of the committee for the
opening of applications;
- Names of the Applicants submitting the applications
following order of opening the applications;
- Findings on the accuracy of
marking and timeliness of received applications, stating also those that were
not marked correctly or delivered on time.
Article 12
Data in and documents
enclosed to the applications shall be handled as internal documents during the
period of mentor candidate selection.
III. CONDITIONS AND CRITERIA FOR THE
SELECTION OF MENTORS
Article 13
A mentor candidate must meet the following
conditions:
- Meet the conditions for a basic and applied research project head;
- Actively cooperate in a research programme or at least one research and
development project;
- Work for a research organisation;
- Train less than three
young researchers at any one time;
- No young researcher had been assigned to
the mentor candidate for training in the previous year.
Article 14
A mentor shall not be permitted to train more than three young researchers at any one
time, including young researchers whose status is temporarily on hold, or those
whose young researcher financing and training contract has expired without them
successfully completing the programme - these shall be taken into account for
two years following the contractually required end of the programme, unless the
funds have been returned due to non-implemented programme. This condition must
be met by the mentor candidate on the day the applications submitted to the
public call are opened.
Article 15
The following are the criteria for evaluating
mentor candidates:
- Scientific quality of mentor candidate;
- Linking research
work of mentor candidate with domestic and foreign users;
- Relevance of the
proposed training programme for a young researcher and its connection with the
planned postgraduate studies;
- Engagement in the international sphere.
The
methodology of evaluating mentor candidates with quantitative criteria shall be
part of the call documents.
IV. SELECTION OF MENTORS
Article 16
The evaluation
procedures shall be coordinated and organised by the Official and implemented by
the Agency's Scientific Council with the expert bodies in accordance with the
Rules on the organisation and competence of expert bodies in the field of
research and development appointed pursuant to Article 29 of the Decision on
establishing the Public Research Agency of the Republic of Slovenia (Official
Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia no. 132/03). Such Official shall submit the
application form and the evaluation document for each mentor candidate to the
appointed appraiser.
The appraiser shall complete evaluation document for each
mentor candidate.
Article 17
The Official shall then gather the evaluation
documents and prepare a summary list of all candidates by research field for
deliberation by the expert body. The expert body shall draft a priority list for
all evaluated mentors in accordance with the evaluation procedure methodology.
The Director of the Agency shall forward the proposed priority list for all
evaluated mentors to the Scientific Council which shall then verify the
compliance of the proposed priority list of mentors with the Rules, guidelines
of the ministry responsible for science with the prescribed evaluation
methodology.
The Scientific Council shall prepare a proposal of the list of
mentors.
Article 18
The Director of the Agency shall submit the proposed list of
mentors to the Management Board of the Agency (hereinafter: the Management Board)
for approval. The decision on the selection of mentors shall be adopted by the
Management Board which must duly ground its decision.
Article 19
The Applicants
shall be informed of the results of the selection in writing by the Agency.
Article 20
The applicant shall have the right to appeal against the decision
within eight days of receipt of the written notification. The appeal must give a
detailed definition of the reasons for the appeal. The conditions and criteria
for evaluating applications or the evaluation of the appraiser referred to in
the third paragraph of Article 16 hereof cannot be the subject of appeal. The
appeal may only concern an obvious error or violation of the selection
procedure.
The Applicant has the right to be informed of the appraiser’s
evaluation. Nevertheless, the Applicant may not request to be issued any data on
the appraiser.
Article 21
The Director of the Agency shall appoint an appeal
commission to prepare a draft decision on the appeal. The Director of the Agency
shall submit the draft decision to the Management Board for adoption. The
Management Board shall issue a decision on the appeal within 15 days of
receiving the draft decision from the preceding paragraph.
The Management Board
must provide grounds for its decision. Following the adoption of the decision on
the appeal, the Director of the Agency shall publish the list of mentors on the
Agency’s website.
Article 22
Research Organisations shall issue public calls for
candidates for young researchers to work with the selected mentors, by fields of
science and research in the daily press and/or the Official Gazette of the
Republic of Slovenia.
Article 23
Research Organisations must conclude the
selection of the young researcher candidates by the end of August of the year in
question and inform the Agency of the selected young researchers by 1 September.
They shall send the Agency a statement confirming that candidates have been
selected by public call, and provide proof that individual young researchers
meet the call criteria.
Article 24
If a Research Organisation fails to submit
the list of young researcher candidates to the Agency by 1 September, it shall
no longer be eligible to receive financing for the training of young researchers
during that year.
V. YOUNG RESEARCHERS – CONDITIONS AND CRITERIA
Article 25
Young researchers must:
- have at least university-level education in the
appropriate field;
- have an average grade for all examinations and coursework (excluding
the degree examination) of at least 8.00; if a young researcher is already
registered for postgraduate study or has completed a master's degree, the
average grade for the first degree work shall not be relevant;
- be aged up to
28 years inclusive (with respect to the year of birth); if a young researcher
has already enrolled in a postgraduate study programme without financial support
from the Agency or ministry responsible for science, the age of the candidates
may rise above 28 years, namely, one year shall be added for each study year.
If
a young researcher takes maternity or parental leave - of one year for each
child - the age limit shall be increased beyond 28 years by the amount of leave
taken. The same shall apply in the case of extended (documented) sick leave of
the candidate or absence due to military service.
Young researchers who have
already been financed by a young researcher programme but who withdrew from the
contract before its expiry or who failed to complete the training programme
within the contracted time limit, cannot apply for the call.
Article 26
The
following are the criteria for evaluating candidates:
- The average grade for
all examinations and coursework at undergraduate level (excluding the degree
examination) must be at least 80% of the average for examinations and coursework
at that level;
- A completed master’s degree;
- Enrolment in a postgraduate
study programme;
- An award or prize;
- Published articles;
- Collaboration in
research work.
The Research Organisation shall define the evaluation of criteria.
Article 27
The selection of candidates applying to a Research Organisation for
public calls shall be carried out by the Research Organisation in agreement with
the selected mentors. The mentors shall check that candidates meet the
conditions and shall evaluate them in writing based on the criteria from the
preceding article.
VI. IMPLEMENTING FINANCING
Article 28
The Agency shall
finance the training of young researchers until they acquire a doctorate, for a
maximum period of four and a half years.
A young researcher undergoing training
to acquire a doctorate may conclude the training on acquisition of a master’s
degree. The Agency shall in that case finance the training for no more than two
and a half years, after which the young researcher shall not have the right to
further financing.
The Agency may extended the time for research training for
young researchers in the medical field that are in preparatory training, working
as hospital young doctors or taking their specialisation alongside the doctoral
training, so that their programme including the final defence of the doctoral
thesis is concluded within nine years of commencing the young researcher
programme. In such cases the Agency shall provide full financing for the young
researcher training programme for no more than four and a half years which the
financing organised in coordination with the implementation of the programme and
the public finances already allocated for preparatory training, working as a
hospital young doctor or taking a specialisation.
The Agency shall reduce the
financing period defined in the first paragraph of this Article by a year if the
young researcher is already in the second year of studies on signing the
contract, or by two years if the young researcher has passed all the exams in
the Master’s degree programme and has been approved direct access to the Doctor’s
degree programme, is already in the third year of studies or has completed a
Master’s degree, or by three years if the young researcher is already in the
fourth year of postgraduate studies.
Article 29
The Research Organisation in
question (hereinafter; Implementing Organisation) must submit the following
documentation to the Agency before signing the contract on financing and
training a young researcher (hereinafter: the Contract) and before 20 September
at the latest:
- Outline of the research training programme;
- A list of
research projects or programmes in which the mentor is participating and in
which the young researcher will be included;
- The certificate of citizenship of
the young researcher;
- A degree certificate with supplement or master's degree
certificate.
Article 30
The research training programme outline for the young
researcher candidate shall comprise a research and study programme.
The research
programme shall include:
- Guidelines for the young researcher’s tasks and
inclusion in the research group project or programme;
- Working hypothesis and
work methods;
- Research objectives and anticipated results with an emphasis on
original scientific contributions.
There must be a time schedule for the study
programme.
The framework training programme in the research group shall be
compiled by: the research mentor, the head of the research group, the
Implementing Organisation’s management body and the young researcher.
Article 31
The Agency shall conclude a contract with the Implementing Organisation and the
young researcher defining the reciprocal rights and obligations of the
Contracting Parties. The Contract may state that the Implementing Organisation
shall cover specific costs from training young researchers.
The Implementing
Organisation must return the signed contract within 15 days of receipt thereof.
The Implementing Organisation must submit the young researcher's employment
contract and postgraduate enrolment certificate with the Contract. This does not
apply to young researchers that have already completed a master's degree.
Article 32
If the Agency Official finds that the contractual documentation must
be supplemented, the Official shall inform the Implementing Organisation thereof
and request the additional information be provided.
If the Implementing
Organisation does not provide the additionally requested contractual
documentation within 15 days of that notification, the Agency shall withdraw
from the contract and inform the Implementing Organisation thereof within 8 days.
VII. SHORTER FORMS OF YOUNG RESEARCHER TRAINING ABROAD
Article 33
Young
researchers whose training is already being financed by the Agency may
participate in short training programmes abroad for a maximum of one and a half
years in the form of study projects at foreign universities or foreign research
institutes or for the experimental part of doctorate in order to ensure higher
quality training and postgraduate study at home.
During a short young researcher
training period abroad, the Implementing Organisation shall be entitled to full
payment of the funds allocated by the Agency for young researcher training, even
if the young researcher has been awarded a foreign grant for the period abroad.
The Implementing Organisation shall include a description of any young
researcher training that takes place abroad in its annual report.
The
contractual period for programme implementation shall not be extended due to a
short period of training abroad. The defence of the doctoral thesis must be made
in the Republic of Slovenia. Exceptionally, the defence of the doctoral thesis
can be made abroad, in the case of a foreign co-mentor, provided that the
decision on defending the doctoral thesis abroad has been adopted in agreement
with all those involved.
VIII. MONITORING YOUNG RESEARCHER TRAINING
Article 34
The Implementing Organisation must report on the young researcher training
within the time limit set in the Contract by sending an annual or final report
in accordance with the instructions for preparing annual and final reports on
young researcher training published by the Agency on its website. The
Implementing Organisation must publish the young researcher’s doctoral thesis in
electronic form in the Slovenian Current Research Information System (SICRIS).
Before the end of the training, the senior researcher must participate in the
seminar on entrepreneurship organised by a university organisation. The seminar
may not be shorter than 5 school hours (45 minutes each). The certificate of
participation in such a seminar must be attached to the final report referred to
in the previous paragraph.
The final financial report at the end of the training
must be sent to the Agency within one month of the final instalment being paid.
If the report and final financial report are not submitted within the time limit
set in the Contract, the Agency may withhold payment of contractual funds for
the duration of the delay.
Article 35
The Implementing Organisation shall be
obliged to inform the Agency by the tenth of the following month of any changes
during a young researcher's training that relate to a change or termination of
employment, or a justified absence of over 30 working days such as maternity
leave or extended sick leave for which the Implementing Organisation receives
public financing.
In the case of the termination or change in employment, the
payment of funds shall be cancelled. For the duration of a justified absence the
Agency shall temporarily suspend financing and extend the training programme by
the time for which the contractual obligations are suspended.
Article 36
The
Implementing Organisation may only propose a change of mentor if the mentor's
employment situation changes, the mentor retires or dies or is evidently absent
for more than a year.
The new mentor must meet the conditions set out in Article
13 of these Rules.
Article 37
Agency funds may only be used for the purposes and
in the situations set out in these Rules, and in the Contract and instructions
on the use of funds for young researcher training.
The Implementing Organisation
must permit the Agency to review the use of funds it receives on the basis of
the Contract.
The Contract shall state the name of the person responsible for
the fulfilment of contractual provisions.
Article 38
If the contractual
obligations are not fulfilled the Implementing Organisation must inform the
Agency thereof immediately. The Agency may suspend or cancel the financing and
withdraw from the Contract.
The cancellation of the training at the request of
the Implementing Organisation or the young researcher during the first six
months of financing shall not have financial consequences for the signatory of
the Contract, unless the Agency discover that the funds have not been used for
the purpose for which they were intended.
The Implementing Organisation's and
the young researcher's responsibility if the training is cancelled after the
first six months shall be defined in the Contract.
If the Agency withdraws from
the Contract due to the misuse of funds, the Implementing Organisation shall be
obliged to return all paid funds in their real value within a time limit set by
the Agency.
If the purpose and objective of the training programme (defence of
the doctoral thesis) are not achieved within the contractual time limit, or
within an extended time limit of six months without Agency financing, the
Implementing Organisation and the young researcher shall both be required to
return five per cent of the funds paid.
Article 39
Young researchers who
successfully conclude the training (with the defence of the doctoral thesis)
before the end of the contractual time limit, shall be eligible for a bonus
payment of 30 per cent of the funds the Agency had allocated for the young
researcher's gross salary (excluding social security and other contributions),
for each month remaining before the end of the contractual time limit up to a
maximum of twelve months.
IX. TRANSITIONAL AND FINAL PROVISIONS
Article 40
Financing for young researchers accepted into training programmes before these
Rules enter into force shall be financed in accordance with the regulations in
force at the time the contract was signed, but the provisions of Article 33,
Article 34, Article 35, Article 36 and the fourth and fifth paragraph of Article
38 of these Rules shall nevertheless apply. The provision of the second
paragraph of Article 34 shall apply to young researchers accepted into training
programmes in accordance with the provisions of these Rules.
Young researchers
who complete a master's degree training programme including the defence of a
master's thesis within the contractual time limit (two years and six months),
shall be entitled to immediate consideration should they apply for continued
training to the doctorate level. However, the continued training to the
doctorate level shall only be financed for two years.
If young researchers on an
approved master's degree training programme obtain a senate decision for direct
transfer to doctoral studies before the end of the contractual period, the total
duration of financing for their training shall be a maximum of four and a half
years.
Article 41
The Rules on the Training and Financing of Young Researchers
in Research Organisations (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, 12/05
and 49/05) shall cease to have effect on the day these Rules enter into force.
Article 42
These Rules shall enter into force the day after their publication in
the Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia.
No. 0071-14/2006/1
Ljubljana, 2 February 2006
EVA 2006-1647-0005
Prof. Dr.
Niko Toš
President of the Management Board
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