Learn Croatian: Nova stipendija traži bar jednu preporuku za akademski rad. - The new grant asks for at least one recommendation for academic work.

Both bar and barem mean "at least" and can be used interchangeably, though bar is simply a shorter variant. Its position is crucial because restrictive particles apply only to the word or phrase immediately following them (their syntactic scope). By placing bar directly before jednu preporuku, it specifically emphasizes the minimum quantity, meaning "at least one recommendation." If it were placed before the verb (bar traži), it would change the meaning to "it at least asks for..."

Why use the verb traži (looks for / seeks) instead of a direct translation for "requires"?

In Croatian, tražiti is the most common and natural way to express that a job, application, or institution "asks for" or "requires" a specific document or qualification. You could absolutely use the more formal verb zahtijevati (to require), but tražiti is standard in everyday contexts like this.

Since bar sets a quantity, why is jednu preporuku in the accusative case rather than the genitive?