HISTORY AND MISSION OF THE INSTITUTE FOR FORECASTING
The Institute for Forecasting of the Slovak Academy of Sciences was established on January 1, 1989. Center of Social and Psychological Sciences SAS was established on October 1, 2015 by a merger of three research facilities: Institute for Forecasting, Institute of Social Sciences SAS and Institute of Experimental Psychology. The Institute for Forecasting concentrates on interdisciplinary research in following areas:
a) theoretical, methodological and conceptual issues of the Slovak society in national and world-wide context;
b) human dimension of global environmental change,
c) co-evolution of institutional and technology change.
The Institute provides for doctoral studies in field of Forecasting (research field No 5.1.2 ‘Spatial Planning’) and participate on other PhD programmes such as Environmental Planning and Management (Comenius University). Institute coordinates international educational programmes (Marie Curie projects: Emerging Theories and Methods in Sustainability Research –THEMES and Multi-level Governance of Natural Resources: Tools and Processes for Water and Biodiversity Governance in Europe –GoverNat.) Fellows of the Institute act as visiting teachers at universities, international science programmes and associations.
The Center for Trans-disciplinary Study of Institutions, Evolution and Policies a virtual research centre dedicated to introduce ideas from institutional, co-evolutionary and ecological economics was established in May 2008 to support trans-disciplinary research and training in Europe, primarily in the region of Central and Eastern Europe.
The University of Economics in Bratislava (UEB) has traditionally been major research and education partners for the Institute for Forecasting. The Institute and UEB jointly provided for doctoral studies in field of Forecasting. Research staff of both institutions cooperate in a number of scientific projects.
Comenius University in Bratislava is the oldest and most important university in Slovakia. It cooperates with the Institute for Forecasting in the field of global environmental change. The Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Comenius University and the Institute for Forecasting jointly manage the SPECTRA+ Centre of Excellence, supported by the Structural Funds.
Members of the Institute developed rich networks of cooperation with several Universities in Europe and World. Examples are Edward de Bono (Malta), Corvinus University in Budapest, London Metropolitan University (UK), Center for the Study of Institutional Diversity, Arizona State University, IEEP (www.ieep.cz) at the Economic University in Prague Interdisciplinary Centre for Comparative Research in the Social Sciences (Austria), Sezéchenyi István University (Hungary), University of Exeter (UK) and others. Members of the institute are involved in the activities of international academic programmes such as International Human Dimension Programme of Global Environmental Change (IHDP) (www.ihdp.org) or academic societies as European Society for Ecological Economics (ESEE) (www.ecolecon.org).
Since 1998, the Institute is co-publisher of the leading Slovak journal on economics "Ekonomický časopis" (Journal of Economics). The Institute also publishes its own editions: The Forecasting Papers (journal) and Studies and, Open Series editions. The Institute for Forecasting undertake policy advice in areas of economics, social system, science and technology and environmental issues for the needs of central, regional and local government and important national and international organizations. Most important customers included Slovak Government, the Prime Minister Office and Ministries of Economics, Finance, Environment, Labour, Social Affairs and Family, Environment and Agriculture; European Commission, World Bank, International Monetary Fund and OECD and others.