The research team is multidisciplinary with a long-lasting cooperation based on several domestic and international projects. Members of the team deal with subjects related to sustainable urban and regional development, urban civic activism and engagement and research areas concerning modern complex societies (diversity, multiculturalism, multiethnicity, globalization, lifestyle, domestic tourism, human rights). Interdisciplinary cooperation develops between the following departments:

Department of Public Economics and Regional Development

The Department of Social Studies and Ethnology

Department of International Relations and Diplomacy

Research and Innovation Centre

Department of Social Work

Department of Tourism and Hospitality

Department of Geography and Geology

Department of Computer Science

Department of Mathematics

 

Research team actively collaborates with Slovak IT businesses (for example MVI, ESET), municipalities and non-governmental organisations. It focuses on applied research and strategic planning of spatial development (cooperation with entrepreneurs on preparation of smart solutions for smart cities, preparation of strategies, concepts and action plans for municipalities). Research team has a good network of collaborators worldwide (National Science Academy, RSA, RSAI, ERSA, IAPNM, NECTAR, UNESCO, etc.)

 

• Assoc. Prof. PhDr. Alexandra Bitusikova, PhD.is Vice-Rector for Research at Matej Bel University and associate professor in social anthropology at the Department of Social Studies and Ethnology, Faculty of Arts. She is national delegate in the Programme Committee for Socio-Economic Sciences and Humanities – SC6 (H2020, before FP7) and national delegatein the Standing Working Group on Gender in Research and Innovation of the ERAC (until 30 June 2017 called the Helsinki Group).She coordinated and led the Slovak research team in several FP projects (see the project part). She worked in the European Commission and in the European University Association in Brussels as senior adviser and was a visiting scholar at Cambridge University, UK; University College London, UK; and Boston University, U.S. (Fulbright). She was the main scientific organiser of the EU SK Presidency Conference “Social Sciences and Humanities: A New Agenda for Europe's Challenegs" (Bratislava 2016). Her key research interests concern postsocialist urban development and recently also urban social movements, activism and civic engagement in the “postfactual” era. She is actively involved in organizing an annual international human rights conference HUMAN FORUM.

• Kamila Borsekova, PhD. is Coordinator of Research at Matej Bel University and Head of Research and Innovation Centre at Faculty of Economics. Kamila Borsekova has extensive project experience, she was a project and mobility manager of successfully implemented FP7 project FOLPSEC. Her research is mainly focused on smart and creative cities, resilience, and sustainable urban and regional development. Currently, she is the project manager of a number of international projects and a member of project teams in several domestic and international projects. She has authored or co-authored more than 70 scientific articles, chapters and studies, including CC and indexed publications with IF. She is member of Regional Science Academy and the only university representative in UNESCO Slovak Committee MOST, the member of IAPNM and Slovak Section of RSAI (Regional Science Association International).

• Assoc. Prof. Alzbeta Brozmanova Gregorova, PhD. is Head of the Department of Social Work at the Faculty of Education and she is a coordinator of the civic association Volunteer Center. Since 2008, she has been active in the social sphere and is member of the European Network of Experts on Youth Research; Accreditation Committee of the Ministry of Education for specialized activities in the field of youth work, Council of NGOs, vice president of the Platform of Volunteer Centers and Organizations, and Member of the Commission for Human Resources Planning Program of economic, social and cultural development of the city of Banská Bystrica. She also works as a consultant and supervisor of social services.

• Ing. Tomas Gajdosik, PhD.  is a research assistant at the Department of Tourism and Hospitality, Faculty of Economics, Matej Bel University, Banská Bystrica. In his research, he focuses on destination management, governance and leadership, as well as tourism information systems and smart tourism destinations. He is a member of  IFITT ( International Federation for IT and Travel and Tourism).

• Bohuslava Gregorova, PhD. – is a researcher and university teacher at Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Geography and Geology, Matej Bel University, Slovakia. Currently works as the Head of Department of Geography and Geology. Her research focuses on the mountain landscape type (Nízke Tatry mountains) and on spatial patterns of economic activities development, especially tourism. She is also interested in historical-geographical changes in land use functions in the past and evaluation of a land use changes in mountain, recreational areas.

• Roman Hofreiter PhD. is Head of the Department of Social Studies and Ethnology at the Faculty of Arts. His main research fields: economic sociology and sociology of organization. He combines qualitative and quantitative data analysis by CAQDAS e.g. Nvivo10. He is member of the H2020 project team PROMISE.

• Assoc. Prof. PhDr. Ivan Chorvat, PhD. is a sociologist focusing on the sociology of leisure, family and consumption. He is project manager for Horizon 2020 project PROMISE, which generates empirical research through in-depth qualitative case studies of young people identified and often stigmatized, in their particular cultural context, as problematic or conflict- prone. It seeks to identify the sites (public, virtual, private) and agents (adults, institutions, peers) of conflict, its consequences, and young people’s responses to it. Through this, the process by which negative emotions and experiences (i.e. conflict, anger, anxiety, and fear) can be transformed into innovation, creativity activity, civic engagement or political activism is revealed and analysed.

• Stanislav Kolosta, PhD. is a head of the department of public economics and regional development at the Faculty of Economics, Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica. His pedagogical and publishing interests cover areas of regional development, measurement and evaluation of indicators on sustainable development, macroeconomic indicators, environmental and ecological economy, spatial economy and entrepreneurial intentions of youth. These areas are covered by more than 70 publication including CC and indexed publications. He is team member of domestic and international projects. 

• Prof. Ing.  Jana Kucerova, PhD. is full professor in tourism at the Faculty of Economics of Matej Bel University. Her research activities are focused on the regional tourism planning and tourism policy and sustainable tourism development. She is author and co-author of two scientific monographs and more than 90 published research papers in tourism studies. She has been involved into more international projects focused on the curricula development in tourism and creation of tourism development strategies. She is a member of AIEST (Association of International Experts and Scientists in Tourism), ATLAS (Association for Tourism and Leisure Education and Research).

• Lukas Laffers, PhD. is an assistant professor at the Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Matej Bel University. His research areas lie mainly within the areas of econometrics, identification, causal inference and labor economics. He has published his research in Journal of Applied Econometrics, Economics Letters, Computational Economics and Empirical Economics. Lafférs has also presented his research at Cambridge University, University College London, Paris School of Economics and Toulouse School of Economics among other places. His teaching covers mostly data science courses (Linear Regression 1 and 2, Probability Theory, Stochastic Processes).

• Marek Lenc, PhD. is assistant professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences and International Relations at Matej Bel University (since 2012), non-resident expert for East European Security Research Initiative (Kyiv, Ukraine, since 2015) and Apella Institute for Policy Analysis and Dialogue (Yerevan, Armenia, since 2016), research fellow at Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence at National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy (2014). His main research interests include German foreign policy and current German domestic political challenges, future of Europe and Slovak foreign and domestic policies. He is actively involved in organizing an annual international human rights conference HUMAN FORUM that addresses the issues of civic engagement, promotion of human rights and fundamental democratic values.

• Assoc. prof. Vanda Marakova, PhD. is associate professor in tourism, presently the Vice-dean for International Relations of the Faculty of Economics, Matej Bel University in Banska Bystrica. She has more than fifteen years of experience in the research areas of tourism studies. Her main research topics include sustainability and competitiveness in tourism destination, corporate social responsibility in tourism sector, innovations in tourism.  She has authored or co-authored more than 90 scientific articles, chapters and studies, including CC and indexed publications with IF. She is member of ATLAS (Association for Tourism and Leisure Education and Research).

• Matej Masny, PhD. is a researcher and university at Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Geography and Geology, Matej Bel University, Slovakia. His research focuses on land use changes with remote sensing data and GIS, especially in areas of agricultural and recreational landscape. Main aim of these analyses is to identify landscape processes and transformation in rural mainly mountains agricultural areas. He also focuses on landscape transformation and modelling with using methodology of aerial photogrammetry (UAV technology) and 3D modelling (terrestrial 3D scanning). His specialization in teaching at university is focused on geographic information systems, land use change and theme of landscape revitalization.

• Peter Mihok, PhD. is a researcher at the Research and Innovation Centre at the Faculty of Economics of the Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica. His key research and implementation activities were a part of the two EURATOM’s FP7 projects acronymed IPPA (2011 - 2013) and PLATENSO (9/2013 - 8/2016). His current interdisciplinary research concerns legal and economic aspects of electronic monitoring in the criminal justice, and is carried out within the project titled ‘Interdisciplinary approach to electronic monitoring of accused and convicted persons in the Slovak environment’ (acronymed IAEMPS). Mihók holds a PhD. Degree in a field of Public Economics and Services, and is a member of the Nuclear Transparency Watch network.

• Vladimir Siladi, PhD. is vice-dean for research and science and assistant professor of Department of Computer Science at Matej Bel University. His research interest is primarily in Parallel computing architectures, Grid Computing a Data Science, Software Engineering and Smart Cities, Computer Education. He is a member of ACM, SISp (Slovak informatics society), SSAKI (Slovak Society of Applied Cybernetics and Informatics), JSMF (The Union of Slovak Mathematicians and Physicists). He works as a reviewer of Deputy Prime Minister’s Office for Investments and Informatiation projects.

• Assoc. Prof. Jarmila Skrinarova, PhD. is associated professor of the Department of Computer. Her research interest is primarily in Parallel computing, Grid Computing, Artifiacial Intelligence and Computer Education and Smart Cities. She is a member of ACM, SISp (Slovak informatics society), SSAKI (Slovak Society of Applied Cybernetics and Informatics). She has been reviewer of IEEE conferences papers and IEEE journals. She is member of 24 conferences program committees. She is a local coordinator of the project -Slovak infrastructure for HPC at Matej Bel University.

• Prof. Dr. Ing. Miroslav Svitek, dr.h.c. Since 2002, he has been associated professor in engineering informatics at Faculty of Transportation Sciences, Czech Technical University in Prague. Since 2005, he has been nominated as the extraordinary professor in applied informatics at Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Matej Bel in Banska Bystrica, Slovak Republic and Honorary professor at Universidad Autonoma de Bucaramanga in Colombia. Since 2008, he has been full professor in engineering informatics at Faculty of Transportation Sciences, Czech Technical University in Prague. Miroslav Svítek is president of Association of transport telematics of the Czech and Slovak Republic (www.sdt.cz), president of National association for electromobility (www.narodni-spolek.cz), member of Engineering academy of the Czech Republic (www.eacr.cz). He was a Dean of Faculty of Transportation Sciences, Czech Technical University in Prague (www.fd.cvut.cz). He is currently teaching courses and doing research in theoretical telematics, intelligent transport systems, smart cities, quantum system theory and quantum informatics. He is author or co-author of more than 250 scientific papers and 10 monographs.

• Prof. Peter Terem, PhD. is full professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences and International Relations of Matej Bel University. He is author and co-author of numerous monographs, scientific books, as well as case studies and research papers. His research is focused on the Slovak foreign and domestic policy, transition experience, the importance of innovation and critical thinking.

• Assoc. Prof. Ing. Anna Vanova, PhD. is Vice-Dean for Development and the Slovak Representative in Presidium of IAPNM (International Association of Public and Non-profit Marketing), member of Slovak Section of RSAI (Regional Science Association International) member of editorial board of several international journals (inter alia International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Responsibility and Sustainability Journal), member of several scientific committees and academic boards.  Her teaching and research activities are supplemented by the preparing of the content and implementation of international projects for American Express, Open Society Fund Bratislava, the British Know How Fund, the International Institute of Marketing, communications and business; preparation of the content and implementation of training programs for public servants, particularly focusing on strategic marketing planning of territories, marketing communications in the territory and CRM systems in public administration, expert consultancy, lecturing, reviewing, evaluation activities. She is author and a co-author of more than 150 domestic and foreign scientific monographs, textbooks, articles, etc.

• Katarina Vitalisova, PhD. – herresearch field focuses on the building and maintaining relationships and networks among stakeholders in spatial development. She has experience in preparation and participation in several international projects (FP7, COST, Horizon 2020, IVF, Erasmus +, Central Europe, etc.). She is author or co-author more than 60 scientific papers mainly in foreign journals and publications published by reputable publishers. She is member of Regional Science Association, member of Slovak Section of RSAI.

• Patrik Vostinar, PhD. is junior assistant professor of department of computer science at Matej Bel University. His research focuses on IoT and SMART applications. He works as a reviewer of Deputy Prime Minister’s Office for Investments and Informatization projects.

• Michaela Zoncova, PhD. is a researcher and university teacher at Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Geography and Geology, Matej Bel University, Slovakia. Her PhD. research focuses on diversification of rural landscape in terms of transitive economy, i.e. changes caused by the transformation after 1989 in case study of Termal microregion in Slovakia. She uses a multicriterial analysis for assessment the intensity of diversification and identifies and evaluates the changes in the landscape structure using the maps based on aerial images. Main aim of her research was to identify changes in residential area of municipalities in detail. Michaela graduated her postgraduate study from Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Geography and Regional Development (Slovakia). She also collaborated on organizing educational geographic events for students focused on orientation in landscape using GPS, topographic map, compass or applications in smartphones or tablets. Her specialization in teaching at university is focused on geographic information systems and modern trends in education of geography. She also works as an outside lector at University of Third Age (University of Žilina, Slovakia) in study program of UNESCO heritage.

 

 

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