International Visegrad Fund, MŠMT ČR

The International Visegrad Fund (IVF) was founded on 9 June 2000 by the four member states of the Visegrad Group: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia (V4 countries). The IVF is based in Bratislava (the Slovak Republic) and its official language is English. The four member states contribute annually equal shares to the IVF budget.

The IVF mission is to promote the development of closer co-operation between the member states in the area of culture, science and research, education, youth exchanges, tourism and cross-border co-operation, through its grant and scholarship programmes.

IVF Programmes:

Visegrad Grants

Visegrad grants support regional partnerships among NGOs and civil society organizations, public institutions and municipalities, private companies, and non-profit organizations as well as education and research centres that contribute to cooperation in the Visegrad region.

• Projects must develop meaningful cooperation and active participation of organizations from at least 3 V4 countries.
• Cross-border cooperation of at least 2 organizations from 2 neighboring V4 countries also qualify for support with projects taking place within a 40-km radius from the border.
• Maximum duration of project implementation is 18 months.
• Grants can cover up to 100% of project budget with 15% for overheads.
• Projects must address at least one of the objectives of the grant program´s seven focus areas.

Visegrad+ Grants:

Visegrad+ Grants support projects which contribute to the democratization and transformation processes in selected countries and regions, especially non-EU member states in the Western Balkans and the Eastern Partnership countries.

• Projects must develop meaningful cooperation and ensure active involvement of at least 3 V4 countries and 1 entity from the EaP region or the Western Balkans countries at minimum regardless of the applicant.
• Maximum duration of project implementation is 18 months.
• Grants cover up to 100% of project budget with maximum 15% of the requested sum for overheads.
• Projects must clearly address one of the objectives of the program's seven focus areas and be implemented in the region of EU's Eastern Partnership or in the Western Balkans.

Strategic Grants: 

Strategic Grants support projects addressing annual strategic priorities of the Visegrad Group. Strategic priorities are announced annually by the V4 country holding the rotating presidency over the group, which - from July 2020 to June 2021 - is Poland.  

• Projects must develop meaningful cooperation and ensure active participation of organizations from all V4 countries.
• Maximum duration of projects is 36 months, minimum is 12 months.
• Grants cover up to 100% of project budget with 15% for overheads.
• Projects must clearly address one of the annual strategic priorities of the Visegrad Group.

Applying:

Project proposals are accepted only electronically through the Fund’s on-line application system, which opens 30 days before each deadline. Registering your application is possible only with a valid e-mail address. Each application is password-protected, and can be accessed and edited later.

Consulting your project proposal with the Fund’s staff is possible via e-mail, phone, Skype or personal meeting, on an appointment basis. Consultations can take place up to 14 days before the given application deadline.

Following the deadline and before the announcement of the results no further consultations are allowed on the applications submitted to the given call.

Deadlines: 

Proposals for Visegrad Grants, Visegrad+ Grants or Visegrad Strategic Grants are accepted regularly three times per year. The deadlines are February 1, June 1 and October 1.

Applications must be submitted by 12:00 p.m. (noon) CET on the given deadline date.

Visegrad Scholarships:

Visegrad scholarships are intended for study in Master’s degree courses or post-Master (doctoral program or independent research) studies or research for the period of 1-4 semesters for Master student and 1-2 semesters for post-Master students at any accredited public or private universities or accredited Academy of Sciences institutes in the V4 countries, or other countries (see below).

Three schemes are supported within the Visegrad Scholarship Programme: 

A. Intra-Visegrad Scholarships: For scholars or researchers within the territory of the Member States.

B. Out-Going Scholarships: For scholars or researchers from Member States for studies at accredited universities in Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Macedonia (F.Y.R.O.M.), Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia and Ukraine—the same rules are applicable to Kosovar universities.

C. In-Coming Scholarships:For scholars or researchers who are citizens of the following Western Balkan countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia (F.Y.R.O.M.), Montenegro and Serbia wishing to study in the Member States—the same rules are applicable to Kosovar scholars. For scholars or researchers who are citizens of the following Eastern Partnership countries: Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

The application is exclusively submitted via Fund’s online system before the given deadline.

Deadline for the applications is 15 March 12:00 (noon) each year.

The earliest date for commencement of the study/research project is September of the respective year.

By 31 May each year, the Council of Ambassadors approves the final lists of successful applicants together with a reserve list of substitutes used in case of cancellations.

Detailed information on the terms and conditions of the Visegrad Scholarship Programme is available at: https://www.visegradfund.org/apply/mobilities/visegrad-scholarship/. 

Visegrad Scholarship in the Open Society Archives 

Fel­low­ships are awarded two times per year on a com­pet­i­tive basis to scholars, artists or journalists from V4 and non-V4 coun­tries who wish to con­duct research at Open Society Archives (OSA), and whose cur­rent research projects are rel­e­vant to the hold­ings and the given research pri­or­i­ties of the Fund and OSA.
The €2,000 fellowship is designed to pro­vide access to the archives, cover travel to/from Budapest, mod­est sub­sis­tence, and accom­mo­da­tion for a research period of two months. Scholarships for shorter peri­ods are pro-rated.

Detailed information on the terms and conditions of the Visegrad Scholarship Programme is available at https://www.visegradfund.org/apply/mobilities/fellowship-at-osa/. 

Visegrad Artist Residency Programme (VARP)

The programme facilitating artists’ visits to V4 countries and the USA (see below) was founded in 2006 and currently encompasses several sub-programmes:

• Visual & Sound Arts Residency;
• Performing Arts Residency;
• Literary Residency Program;
• Residencies in New York.

Detailed information can be found at: https://www.visegradfund.org/apply/mobilities/.

More information on the above-mentioned grants and scholarships including scholarship application forms is available on the IVF website at: www.visegradfund.org, information on the Visegrad group at www.visegradgroup.eu.