Centre of Excellence for Social Innovations at Comenius University
Centre of Excellence for social innovation at the Comenius University in Bratislava (CESIUK) was established under the project "Global and local processes in Slovakia: the development of social innovation in terms of internationalization of the European Union". It has been a unique project bringing together the highest quality researchers from different disciplines in research and forecasting of social innovation.
Social innovation represent new ideas and practical solutions that respond to current and future trends and propose measures addressing the current needs of people and ultimately lead to improving their living conditions.
The main objective of the Centre of Excellence for social innovation is the development of human, social and cultural capital through research of strategic social innovation in the context of globalization, Europeanisation and transformation in Slovakia and abroad. To achieve these goals Centre has been providing unique research infrastructure procured under the project and advancing joint research, based on a multidisciplinary approach, linking the methods applied in different social sciences with the mathematical and economic modelling.
Research activity of the Centre focuses on social innovation in the four basic dimensions:
- Political dimension,
- Social dimension,
- Dimension of public policy and economics,
- Dimension of culture, identity and communication.
An important part of the Centre’s activities is also transformation of research results into practical recommendations for public policy-making. Another Centre’s activity is the participation on domestic and international research projects (e.g. The Changing Patterns of EU Foreign Policy Making System and the Small EU Member States supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency, APVV-0484 – 10).
Centre has also created Social Science Laboratory equipped with specialized software for qualitative and quantitative analyses, access to renowned electronic journal databases as well as domestic and foreign literature on social sciences research.
Centre of Excellence for social innovation at the Comenius University in Bratislava was initiated by Department of Political Sciences. Within the research activities of the project have been involved several departments of the Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences and Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics. From 2009 until 2012 was the project funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the Operational Program Research and Development, measure 4.1 "Supporting networks of excellent research and development departments as pillars of regional development in the Bratislava region“. „We are supporting research activities in Slovakia/The project is co-financed by EU funds“.
Contact: cesiuk(at)fphil.uniba.sk