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Bratislava welcomes students – Student Welcome Week returns at the end of September

pr@uniba.sk — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 15:54:00 +0200

Student Welcome Week is part of the city’s Economic Development Programme, which identifies attracting and retaining talent in Bratislava as one of its key priorities. This year’s event runs for three days, with a varied and interesting programme at Nová tržnica (the New Market Hall), in Bratislava’s urban forests and at student dormitories. More than twenty partner organisations and institutions have helped prepare the programme, including student associations, municipal organisations, civic associations, companies and other organisations from the city’s innovation ecosystem. Students are not simply attending the event; they are actively involved in organising and preparing it. The three-day programme centres on three themes: Discover, Experience and Get Involved. For two days, Nová tržnica will host stands run by partner organisations and student associations, where students can find out about study-abroad opportunities, scholarships, volunteering and communities in the city. The programme also features mental-health workshops, information about career opportunities in the city, demonstrations by university teams, discussions, networking with event partners and a theatre performance. There will also be activities around the city and in the urban forests. In the early evening of 1 October, students will be welcomed jointly by the Mayor of Bratislava and the rectors of the partner universities. The evening will continue with live music at Nová tržnica. On the final day, the event will come to the students at their dormitories. The municipal organisation KOLO will hold swap events in Mlynská dolina and at Mladá garda, where students can pick up reused items for their rooms or pass on things they no longer need. Mayor of Bratislava Matúš Vallo said: “We want to show young people that Bratislava is a very good place to study and live. Slovakia has long been affected by brain drain, as young people and people who work make their homes abroad. It is natural for young people to gain knowledge and experience abroad, but we want them to see their future in Bratislava and to regard the city as a place where they can build a stable home. Bratislava has a great deal to offer: a cohesive society, both international and local job opportunities, an excellent location between major capital cities and a high quality of life.” Rector of Comenius University Bratislava Marek Števček added: “Taking an active part in Student Welcome Week is a strategic step for us and confirms our commitment to being a modern and open university. We help new students settle smoothly into our academic community. We want to show them that university life is not just about lectures, but also about friendships, personal growth and life beyond the classroom. This event is something we can all be proud of.” Why Bratislava is doing this Student Welcome Week is part of the City for Talent initiative, through which Bratislava works with companies and research and academic institutions on a range of activities intended to support young people and encourage them to stay in the city. According to OECD research, as many as 22% of Slovak students study abroad, the second-highest proportion in the EU. In its economic strategy, Bratislava has therefore set out to compete with Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Ljubljana and Warsaw as a city where graduates will want to stay. This is far from a minor issue for the city’s economy. When companies decide where to invest and expand their teams, access to people with the right skills is one of the factors they consider. Bratislava accounts for almost 30% of the Slovak economy, and its future growth depends directly on its ability to attract and retain talent. Ferdinand Daňo, Rector of the University of Economics in Bratislava, said: “Talented graduates are the most valuable asset Bratislava and Slovakia have, so it is only natural that we should join the city in welcoming them. We want new students to feel from their very first day that Bratislava offers them not only a high-quality education, but also a community and a future.” Talent as a priority Surveys show that when young people choose where to live and study, they consider both the quality of universities and also the opportunities they will have to become involved in city life. They value having places and opportunities to build communities. They also want to see and feel that the city listens to them and welcomes them. Parents likewise stress that an attractive, safe and open environment plays an important part in decisions about their children’s future. Professor Martin Šmatlák, Rector of the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, said: “Cooperation between the city and its universities is worthwhile only if we do more than welcome new students at an event like this. Above all, we need to work together to maintain and develop an environment in which young people feel safe and inspired from the very beginning of their studies and have opportunities to take an active part in social and community life. Bratislava has long been the natural cultural and creative setting for the Academy of Performing Arts, where our students develop their artistic practice and present their work to the public. We see Student Welcome Week as a good opportunity to strengthen ties between the city, the academic community and the public from the very first days of study. I believe that together we can succeed in attracting and retaining talent wherever it is needed.” Student Welcome Week is the city’s first point of contact with students who come to Bratislava to study. It is intended to show them that Bratislava values them and that attracting, developing and retaining talent is one of the city’s priorities. Maximilián Strémy, Rector of the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, said: “Supporting talent is also a priority for the Slovak University of Technology. Our students can develop their skills through research based on real-world assignments for companies, cities and municipalities, and can also turn their ideas into start-ups in our incubator.” The full programme, workshop registration and further information are available on the City of Bratislava website. Admission is free.

EAIE GLASGOW 2026 – The Rhythm of Revolution

milos.hrabovsky@uniba.sk — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 12:15:00 +0200

The annual EAIE (European Association for International Education) Conference and Exhibition 2026, marking its 36th edition, took place from 8 to 11 September at the modern Scottish Event Campus, which welcomed more than 7,300 professionals from over 100 countries worldwide. The main theme of the conference was “The Rhythm of Revolution”, a call for innovation, challenging established models, fostering collaboration, and creating lasting change in global education. The programme featured more than 240 presentations, workshops, and networking activities. Topics included academic freedom, climate change, diversity, European funding opportunities, university marketing, as well as digital and hybrid learning. Dozens of international institutions and universities from around the world participated in the exhibition. Representatives of our faculty and Comenius University, together with other Slovak higher education institutions and representatives of the education sector, held dozens of meetings with universities and educational organizations from Europe, Asia, North America, and South America. Many of these meetings also took place under the common Slovak brand at the national pavilion. The joint Slovak presentation created opportunities for concrete agreements, new projects, and further strengthening of connections between Slovak higher education and international partners. Together with Comenius University, our faculty expanded its network of contacts across Europe, Asia, North America, and Africa while further developing existing partnerships. Within the framework of the Erasmus+ programme, discussions were held with universities in Germany and Italy regarding the expansion of student and staff mobility opportunities. The faculty also engaged in promising discussions in the field of medicine with representatives of the University of Oulu, the University of the Free State in South Africa, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León in Mexico, and Université Grenoble Alpes in France. In addition, the faculty and Comenius University used the event to strengthen connections within the Utrecht Network and to meet with organizations supporting internationalization and international student recruitment. Meetings with CAEI further strengthened links with Latin America and opened new opportunities for broader participation in academic networks across the region. Participation in EAIE therefore brought the faculty new bilateral contacts, mobility opportunities, and a further expansion of the geographical reach of its international cooperation. EAIE 2027 will take place in Lisbon, Portugal

National Scholarship Programme of the Slovak Republic – call for applications

Tue, 29 Sep 2026 11:14:00 +0200

A new call for scholarship applications has been published under the National Scholarship Programme of the Slovak Republic to support mobility for study, research/artistic and teaching stays in the summer semester of the 2026/2027 academic year. The application deadline is 31 October 2026 at 16:00. Applications can currently be submitted online at www.stipendia.sk or www.scholarships.sk. Selection results will be published on the programme website (www.stipendia.sk/sk/main/vysledky-vyberovych-konani) within eight weeks of the deadline. All applicants will be notified by email. Lists of scholarship holders will be provided to universities, addressed to their vice-rectors for international relations. Scholarships are intended for students and PhD students of Slovak higher education institutions (including PhD studies undertaken at external educational institutions under the Higher Education Act, such as the Slovak Academy of Sciences), and for postdoctoral researchers working at Slovak higher education institutions and research organisations, such as the Slovak Academy of Sciences, with permanent residence in Slovakia. They cover living costs during study and/or research/artistic stays at the second cycle of higher education (master's, engineering or equivalent degree programmes), study and/or research/artistic stays during PhD studies, and research stays for postdoctoral researchers at a selected foreign higher education institution or research organisation. Basic information is provided in the leaflet linked below. Detailed information is available on the official programme website at www.stipendia.sk or www.scholarships.sk. Students, PhD students and postdoctoral researchers may also apply for a travel grant together with their scholarship application in connection with their planned study and/or research/artistic stay abroad. The National Scholarship Programme also supports the mobility of international students, PhD students, university teachers, researchers and artists for stays at Slovak higher education institutions and research organisations. Citizens of any country may apply. International applicants must deliver the original acceptance/invitation letter to SAIA, n. o. (SAIA, n. o., Sasinkova 10, 812 20 Bratislava 1). The document must arrive by 12:00 on the third working day following the application deadline. Working days are determined according to Slovak law. For questions about the National Scholarship Programme, please contact the programme administrators:

Kristína Sallerová (nsp-sk@saia.sk): applicants for stays abroad and international PhD applicants;
Ondrej Aradský (nsp-foreign@saia.sk): international applicants who are university teachers or researchers;
Silvia Lipovská (nsp-foreign2@saia.sk): international student applicants.

The establishment of the National Scholarship Programme (NSP) was approved by the Government of the Slovak Republic in Resolution No. 557 of 13 July 2005. Its continuation was approved in Resolution No. 317 of 29 April 2009. The programme is funded by the Ministry of Education, Research, Development and Youth of the Slovak Republic from the state budget. SAIA, n. o., administers the programme under an agreement with the Ministry. NSP scholarship holders are scholarship holders of the Government of the Slovak Republic. The next deadline, on 30 April 2027, will concern stays during the 2027/2028 academic year. We would also like to draw your attention to a webinar about the programme and the preparation of scholarship applications: 6 October 2026 at 14:00 – NSP Scholarship: Science on the Move. Webinar information

Winter School Entrepreneurship and Innovation - Universidad Pontificia Comillas

Tue, 29 Sep 2026 10:57:00 +0200

We are delighted to invite your students to take part in the Comillas Global Winter School 2027, hosted by Universidad Pontificia Comillas in the vibrant city of Madrid.

Winter School Focus: Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme Highlights

Official diploma and transcript
Credit-bearing courses
Cultural and site visits for an immersive international experience
Accommodation packages available

Key Information

Location: Universidad Pontificia Comillas, Madrid, Spain
Dates: 11 – 27 January, 2027
Discounts: Early registration and group discounts available
Registration: Click here to register

More details & applications:
Contact us: summer.school@comillas.edu | Xinyi Ying yxinyi@comillas.edu

Condensed Matter Seminar - Roman Martoňák (8.10.2026)

Richard.Hlubina@fmph.uniba.sk — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 08:09:00 +0200

prof. Ing. Roman Martoňák, DrSc.:
What is there beyond diamond? Abstract:
Diamond is exceptional for many reasons. Besides being the hardest material found in Nature (and likely also among the most beautiful ones), it also has an extremely wide region of stability in pressure. Persisting at ambient conditions as metastable phase on geological time scales, and becoming thermodynamically stable already at relatively low pressure of about 1.6 GPa (16 kbar), it has never been observed to transform to another phase upon compression. The question of what is beyond diamond is of interest for several decades. As early as 1984, it was theoretically predicted that the cubic diamond phase of carbon is thermodynamically stable up to 1 TPa (10 Mbar), three times higher than the pressure in the Earth's centre. The next phase following diamond in the phase diagram was predicted to be the BC8 phase, well known as a metastable phase in silicon. However, no transformation of diamond was observed in ramp compression experiments where the pressure reached even 2 TPa. The observation of post-diamond phases in carbon thus represents one of the open problems of high-pressure physics. In my talk I will review the past and current experimental attempts aiming at synthesis of BC8 and present theoretical efforts in this field. I will then show our recent results of simulations of structural transformations at TPa pressures based on metadynamics and machine learning potentials. These reveal atomistic details of possible formation of BC8 upon compression and decompression and also address the question of its possible stability upon quenching to ambient conditions.

Algebraic Graph Theory Seminar - Tereza Škublová (2.10.2026)

Martin.Macaj@fmph.uniba.sk — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 07:59:00 +0200

Tereza Škublová:
On distance magic circulants of valency 2k for odd k Abstract:
A circulant Circ(n,S) is a Cayley graph Cay(G,S), where G is the finite cyclic group Z_n. We assume that 0 ∉ S, S = −S and [S] = Z_n. A circulant Γ = Circ(n,S) is called distance magic if there exists a bijection ℓ from vertex set of Γ to the set {1,2,...,n} such that for each vertex x the sum of values of function ℓ through the vertices adjacent to vertex x is constant for all vertices x of Γ. Štefko MiklaviČ and Primož Šparl gave us a partial classification of the 6-regular distance magic circulants in their article On distance magic circulants of valency 6, Discrete Ap plied Mathematics, 2022. In this talk we give a brief overview of their results and discuss generalizations of their theorems to 2k-regular circulants for an odd k.

Current grant opportunities in the USA for university teachers and PhD students

Mon, 28 Sep 2026 14:32:00 +0200

Send your PhD students on a research stay in the USA!

Fulbright Slovak Student Program 2027/2028

Research grants for PhD students

The Fulbright Slovak Student Program is intended for PhD students who plan to conduct research at an American academic institution. Applicants from all academic disciplines except clinical medicine are eligible. The programme offers a research stay of 6 to 9 months at any accredited university or research institution in the United States. Applicant requirements:

citizenship of the Slovak Republic;
completion of the second cycle of higher education;
strong motivation and commitment;
excellent command of English.

Selection criteria:

preference is given to applicants without extensive previous experience in the USA;
applicants' adaptability and personal qualities;
willingness to return to Slovakia and further develop the skills acquired in the USA.

What does the grant cover?

a monthly stipend to cover living costs;
a return flight;
basic health coverage during the stay in the USA;
a visa;
full administrative support for the stay.

Fulbright Schuman Program

A programme for EU citizens to conduct research, teach or study in the USA

Grants for EU citizens to study, teach or conduct research in the USA are available in all fields of study relating to US–EU relations or EU affairs concerning EU development, EU policies or transatlantic relations between the USA and the EU, for a period of three months to one academic year. The application deadline is 1 December 2026. Applicants can choose from five types of grants, depending on their academic status or professional experience:

grants for graduate study or research;
grants for postdoctoral research or lecturing;
the Fulbright–NATO grant in security studies;
grants for international education administrators;
innovation grants.

Ronald and Eileen Weiser Professional Development Award

A research stay at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA

A six-week to three-month research stay at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, for Slovak university teachers. Applicants may submit projects in any field of research or teaching, in collaboration with faculty and department staff at the University of Michigan. When should you apply? The application deadline is 15 January 2027. When will the stays take place? Stays may take place between September and November 2026 or between February and April 2027.

Erasmus+ Students Once Again Join Comenius University Faculty of Medicine

Mon, 28 Sep 2026 12:53:00 +0200

The Erasmus+ students were welcomed at the Faculty by Vice-Dean for International Relations Prof. MUDr. Daniela Ostatníková, PhD. In the 2026/2027 academic year, students from seven countries – Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Poland, North Macedonia and Greece – will study at the Faculty of Medicine. The largest groups come from Spain (13), Italy (12) and Germany (10), followed by France (8), Poland (3), North Macedonia (2) and Greece (1). Twenty-six students will remain at our Faculty for the entire academic year, while a further twenty-three students will undertake their Erasmus+ mobility during the winter semester. Forty-eight students will study General Medicine, while one student will study Dentistry. Erasmus+ brings not only students from different countries to the Faculty, but also new experiences, cultures, perspectives and opportunities for mutual understanding. We hope that their stay at the Faculty of Medicine will be a valuable part of their studies and that they will take away many pleasant memories from Bratislava. Welcome to the Comenius University Faculty of Medicine, and we wish you a successful and rewarding Erasmus+ stay! International Relations Office
Faculty of Medicine
Comenius University Bratislava

The 7th Central-Eastern European Congress on Cell-Free Nucleic Acids Comes to a Successful Close

Mon, 28 Sep 2026 12:50:00 +0200

The congress featured an outstanding program of scientific presentations from our invited speakers and contributed talks, covering a broad range of topics from fundamental research of the biology of extracellular nucleic acids to prenatal diagnostics, cancer research, and other clinical applications. We were honored to welcome distinguished experts from Europe, the United States, and Asia, including Prof. Diana W. Bianchi (NIH, USA), Prof. Erik Sistermans (Amsterdam UMC, The Netherlands), Prof. Jacky Lam (The Chinese University of Hong Kong, China), and many other inspiring speakers and participants. The conference also included an awards ceremony for significant contributions to the field of medical genetics and genomics. Prof. Diana W. Bianchi and Prof. Erik Sistermans were awarded the Izakovič Medal by the Slovak Society for Medical Genetics and Genomics. Prof. Diana W. Bianchi was also honored with the Commemorative Medal of the Faculty of Medicine at Comenius University. Beyond the scientific program, the congress provided an excellent opportunity to exchange ideas, establish new connections, discuss emerging challenges, and strengthen collaborations across disciplines and countries. We would also like to acknowledge the institutions that organized CEECFNA 2026: the Institute of Molecular Biomedicine, Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University, and Science Park, Comenius University. The organizing team was led by Associate Professor Barbora Vlková and Associate Professor Tomáš Szemes. Thank you for making CEECFNA 2026 an exceptional scientific meeting. We look forward to continuing the conversation and welcoming you again at future editions of the congress!

Seminar of Graph Theory - Martin Škoviera (1.10.2026)

Martin.Skoviera@fmph.uniba.sk — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 08:09:00 +0200

Martin Škoviera:
Bounding Hamilton cycles in embedded cubic graphs Abstract:
In this talk we develop the idea that embedding a cubic graph into a closed surface can serve as a convenient tool for finding a Hamilton cycle in it. We establish a necessary and sufficient condition for a cubic graph embedded in a closed surface, orientable or not, to have a bounding Hamilton cycle. With this characterisation and its consequences we can guarantee Hamilton cycles in wide classes of cubic graphs. Among others, we can provide a unified and relatively short proof of a result due to Glover, Marusic, Kutnar, and others proved in a series of four papers published over the years 1996-2012 that cubic Cayley graphs of finite quotients of the modular group have a Hamilton path and, except in one special case, they also have a Hamilton cycle. We also show that in the remaining case these graphs have no bounding Hamilton cycle, which indicates that identifying Hamilton cycles for this case is likely to be very difficult. This is a joint work with Roman Nedela. More information