Research Centers

The School of Business and IT Research Centre (BIRC) focuses its research on a plethora of business-related issues in order to better understand key features, characteristics and workings of business administration. The main research concentrations are economics, management, marketing, information technology, and law.

Specific focus areas of research interest include:

• Labor market, public sector, institutions, international trade
• Human resources, motivation, sport, risk, innovation
• Consumer behavior, neuroscience, sport
• Neutral networks, wireless networks, beamforming
• Business regulations, IFRS, international regulations

The School of Psychology Research Center’s (PRC) activity is centered around the core themes of cutting-edge research in psychology, often interlinked with other academic disciplines.

Main areas of the research at PRC include:

• Child development Perceptions of otherness
• Posttraumatic stress and growth
• Comparative psychology
• Ecopsychology
• Social psychology
• Personality (e.g., prejudice, behavior towards others)
• Motivation and inhibition (e.g., preventing obesity)
• Music psychology – cognitive and therapeutic applications
• Positive psychology and wellness
• Neuroscience and mental health (e.g., Alzheimers)

The Communication and Media Research Centre (CMRC) focuses on a variety of different areas in pursuit of contributing to the understanding of the impact of media on society. Recent initiatives have focused on the role of the mass media in democratization processes linguistic aspects of political speeches, characteristics of chain disinformation emails, and the impact of information and communication technologies on children.

General areas of research interest include:

• Political communication
• Political campaigning/campaign communications
• New issues/values
• Communication/media development
• Media and democratic transition, media and democratization
• Media reform movements
• Civil society and media reforms
• Strategic communication
• Communication for social change
• Media effects (cognitive, behavioral, attitudinal)
• Sociolinguistics 

The International Relations Research Center (IRRC) is a UNYP research center that pursues interdisciplinary research projects both within UNYP and with external partners. Its research is methodologically diverse and policy oriented and focuses on the core themes of political communication, international organizations and collective security, peace studies, conflict analysis, security policy and strategy development, international law.

Main areas of the current research at IRRC include:

• Communication & media, propaganda, political communication
• Democratization, ethics
• Voting behavior, party politics, populism
• American & world history, EU history, Cold War
• African studies
• International organizations, EU, NATO, collective security
• Peace studies, peace operations, peacebuilding
• Conflict analysis, conflict management and transformation, conflict prevention
• Privatization of security
• (counter)terrorism, (counter)insurgency, hybrid/irregular warfare, modern warfare
• Environmental security
• Strategy and defense policy planning and development
• International law, international humanitarian law, human rights