Overview
National research programmes in the Slovak Republic (SR) follow a centralised structure, with transport programmes incorporated into the Government's general research policies. The framework for the general research programmes of the SR, including the transport research programme, was determined in 2000 by the 'Conception of State scientific and technical politics up to year 2005'.
In 2002, the priority for transport research was to support the research activities of the Ministry in the following areas: (i) European integration, (ii) sectoral statistics, informatics and analytical support to the Ministry's departments.
Since the reorganisation of the research institutions of the SR, transport research is mainly executed by the Transport Research Institute in Zilina (VÚD). Since 2000, the preferred financing system for research projects has been a 'grant system', where all funding comes from the earmarked funds of the MDPT SR.
Funding
For the year 2003, some EUR 435,000 have been allocated in the state budget for the Ministry's total RTD programme in transport.