SECURE SOCIETIES Matej Bel University team consists of the researchers from the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Political Science and International Relations that are supported by the external researchers and consultants from the 6 countries (EU and the USA).

The strength of the team expertise is multidisciplinary approach (security, law, IT, policymaker, criminology, criminalistics, forensic sciences’s and Administration of Justice’s experts) and our experience with the EU and national projects.

Comprehensive exploration of Secure Societies is a subject of two research centers at Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica.

The Criminological and Criminalistic Research Center at the Faculty of Law of the Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica (CCRC) is a specialized department for the examination of the protection of persons, property and other legally protected interests, which performs scientific research and expert activities in accordance with the long-term development plan and intentions of the faculty / university. The primary objects of the study are the praxeological problems from the field of Criminal Law, the Criminology and Criminalistics, the Cyber Crime and prevention, the Protection of Persons and Property by the Criminal Law, and the Security agenda within the national and international projects.

The Crisis Management Center at the Matej Bel University (CEKR)is a specialized department for national and international security, crisis management and risk management. In general, research agenda of the Crisis Management Center is to increase the effectiveness of decision-making processes in crisis management using a simulation scenarios and to search for optimal models and processes in crisis management in order to solve various types of crisis occurring in social and natural processes.

CEKR cooperates with partners from both the social and political spheres, as well as economic sphere in order to support the importance of security agenda in everyday life of society. CEKR has close cooperation with Slovak government and non-government agencies, which includes the Department of State of the Slovak Republic, the Department of Interior of the Slovak Republic, Regional Office of Public Health in Banska Bystrica, GLOBSEC Policy Institute or Slovak Atlantic Commission. Research agenda of the CEKR is also influenced by cooperation with industrial partners - ATOS IT Solutions and Services, ALISON, ESET, IBM and Cogniware. Center also participates on several scientific projects with partners particularly from the Balkans and is a long-term partner of international scientific conferences Security Forum and GLOBSEC Conference.

Description of the infrastructure and/or technical equipment

 

CEKR UMB has its own technological infrastructure, the scientific facility uses the following systems or tools:

a) system of the process management of crisis situations – Emergency Enterprise Manager KRIMA,

b) system of the unified simulation environment – VR Forces, and

c) system used for collection of unstructured and structured data and the visualization of their relevant connections and relations – IBM Watson Content Analysis and Cogniware Data Collector.

 

Crisis Management Center of Matej Bel University could use the Emergency Enterprise Manager KRIMA (EEM KRIMA) and  IBM Watson Content Analysis and Cogniware Data Collector, as well as supporting hardware and software infrastructure. Emergency Enterprise Manager KRIMA (EEM KRIMA) is the basic program tool of the Crisis Management Center of Matej Bel University. It is a crisis management system supporting various types of users and their requirements concerning the prevention, solution and reconstruction. It also supports enterprise security management and management of security incidents classified as “high” or “critical” risks. IBM Watson Content Analysis and Cogniware Data Collector represent strong and sophisticated platforms for collecting, analyzing and visualizing data from various social media; tools are used to map and make models of social networks, and to survey limitations concerning the utilization of artificial intelligence in behavioral analyses in cyberspace.

 

The Criminological and Criminalistics Research Center at the Faculty of Law of the Matej Bel University in the city of Banská Bystrica (CCRC UMB) / and its regional branch: the Joint Research Laboratory Cassovia (JRL Cassovia) at the Faculty of Aeronautics of the Technical University in Košice, have their own standard technological infrastructure, use the following systems or tools:

a) HW and SW systems for the analytical research processes,

b) systems of the technical simulation environment in the Sector of Critical Infrastructure “Transportation”, and

c) system used for collection of unstructured and structured data for the support of the PhD. doctoral studies.

 

• PhDr. Michal Dobrik, PhD.  is Director of The Crisis Management Center of the Matej Bel University. Scientist and lecturer in international relations – international security and security policy with emphasis on civil crisis management. He is a former research coordinator of projects financed by national grant schemes VEGA and KEGA, project manager and coordinator of the Center of Excellence projects co-financed by OP VaV (Operational Program Research and Development) and ERDF – scientific priority No. 9 Security and Defense. He is a lecturer in both security studies and European regional policy – implementation of European Structural and Investment Funds 2014 – 2020.

• Assoc. Prof. Ing. Karol Fabian, PhD. is a senior lecturer and scientist, specialized in computer science. Long-term executive of Slovak Academy of Sciences in the field of supercomputer design. Expert in IBM in the field of information security. Since 2013, expert of the simulation and crises scenario creation for the security threats in the cyber-space at the CEKR UMB. He spent 20 years working for IBM Slovakia (1993 – 2013) as Industry Team Leader with responsibilities for productive IT systems at large automotive and power distribution companies. Working for IFIP TC6 as a Slovak representative (1989 – 2003), he organized many international scientific conferences and events. As a senior scientist at the Institute of Cybernetics and Robotics of the Slovak Academy of Science (1981 – 1993), he was responsible for distributed multiprocessor design and token ring networks performance analysis. Senior lecturer in the field of security studies and information security.

• Dr.h.c. Prof. Ing. Miroslav Kelemen, DrSc., MBA, LL.M. is Director of The Criminological and Criminalistic Research Center at the Faculty of Law of Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica. Emeritus Rector the Academy of the Armed Forces Gen. M. R. Štefánik in Liptovský Mikuláš, Brigadier General ret. His teaching and research focuses on the protection of public and private security interests in the individual security sectors, the forensic investigations in a specific environment, and the interdisciplinary exploration of anti-social phenomena to optimize the society's response to crime, the control of crime by the means of repression and prevention of the state, in the context of the European security agenda. He is member of The European Society of Criminology, University of Lausanne, Switzerland.

• Dr. David Kollar, PhD.  is a lecturer at the Faculty of Political Science and International Relations. His field of research is security policy with focus on superpowers – Russia, USA and China, focused mainly on non-military aspects of security. He worked for the Euro-Atlantic Center (NGO) where he took part in many projects, conferences, workshops and seminars focused on international relations and security – the best known is the GLOBSEC conference in Bratislava.

• Mgr. Jozef Michal Mintal is a PhD. student of the Department of Security Studies at the Faculty of Political Science and International Relationsof Matej Bel University and Matej Bel University DataSociety Lab Research Fellow working under the Cognitive Analytics for Real-World Security Threats (CARWST) research project founded by IBM. His research interests are focused on the social influence, social networks and computational approaches to the social and political sciences.

• Dr.h.c prof. Ing. Pavel Necas, PhD., MBA is a professor of the Department of Security Studies at the Faculty of Political Science and International Relationsof Matej Bel University. He is an expert in the field of national and international security issues, security threats. He is a member of Executive Academic Board of the European Security and Defence College (ESDC) in Brussels.

• Mgr. Robert Vancel is a PhD. student of the Department of International relations and diplomacy at the Faculty of Political Science and International Relationsof Matej Bel University. His research interests are focused on the social influence, social networks and computational approaches to the social and political sciences.

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