Slovakia

There are approximately 12 universities in Slovakia. At the time of writing, there was no available data on their status with regard to institutional repositories.

The Press Releases section of the Europa website states that on 17 September 2007, the European Commission approved an Operational Programme for Slovakia for the 2007-13 period. The Operational Programme “information Society” falls within the Convergence Objective framework and has a total budget of almost €1.2 billion. Community investment through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) amounts to some €993 million, which represents approximately 9.1% of the total EU investment earmarked for Slovakia under the Cohesion Policy for 2007-13. Only the Convergence regions (in red on the map) are eligible)

The webiste further states that the overall objective of the Operational Programme is to create an information society as a means to developing a performing knowledge-based economy in Slovakia. The Programme aims to use the technological change of recent years positively in order to make Slovakia an attractive location in which to invest and to live.

The development of an information society in the Slovak Republic will only be possible through a greater use of information and communication technology (ICT) in business, households and public administration. Greater inclusion can only become a reality if e-Government services are in place, enabling users to access high quality services online. To make these services available to the public, the Programme must achieve equal access by ensuring greater availability of better ICT infrastructures.

Furthermore, the principal objectives of the Information Society Programme are:

• electronisation of public administration (i.e. transforming the paper-based environment into an electronic-based environment)
  development of electronic services


• development and renewal of the infrastructure of repository institutions


• improvement of the availability of broadband internet access.

The following priorities represent the structure of the Operational Programme "information Society 2007-2013":

Priority 1: Electronisation of public administration and development of electronic services [approximately 70.7% of total funding]

Currently Slovakia is at the early stages of implementing e-Government services. The potential of not only making public services available online but also to re-engineer processes to make them more simple and effective has resulted in the identification of this area as a priority for Slovakia. This measure aims to create a central online portal through which the public will access electronic services. The measure aims also to launch back office applications as well as a range of methods (such as service kiosks, digital TV, mobile phones) that provide still other electronic services. The Operational Programme will ensure the availability of the network of Integrated Service Points across the country.

Priority 2: Development and renewal of the national infrastructure of repository institutions [approximately 16.5% of total funding]

Repository institutions across Slovakia contain an enormous quantity of cultural, scientific and intellectual heritage. This priority seeks to make this material available to users regardless of their location. Taking advantage of technology to provide digital access to repository archives will achieve these objectives. Furthermore, digitising content will enable the broadest possible application of data in the fields of R&D, innovation, local development and regional development.

Priority 3: Improvement of broadband internet access [approximately 9.7% of total funding]

This priority will provide broadband access to everyone. Currently Slovakia is one of the least developed EU Member States in terms of broadband access. One of the main reasons for this situation is the inadequate development of networks. The Programme will concentrate on the least commercially attractive areas as a means of ensuring universal access.

Priority 4: Technical assistance [approximately 3.1% of total funding]

The Programme will employ technical assistance during implementation. Financial support covers administration, monitoring and control.

The DRIVER wiki may be a useful source of further information.

Are there developments in this country that you would like to inform the DRIVER community about? If so, please visit the DRIVER wiki. There you will find guest editors' contributions to the countries pages. Information about the easy process of editing pages and how to obtain a password can be found on the wiki under "PmWiki Software". We look forward to your visit.

Last updated: 14-Nov-2008