A successful first edition of the Research for Social and Psychological Sciences conference

On 9 April 2024, the Centre of Social and Psychological Sciences of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (CSPS SAS) organised the first edition of the Research for Social and Psychological Sciences (ReSPS) conference. The event was held at the congress centre of the SAS in Smolenice. The motivation for organizing a scientific conference was the need to create space for researchers of the individual institutes of the Centre to present their work and to build a scholarly reference platform for the results of CSPS research in the professional field.

The conference was introduced by Lucia Mýtna Kureková and Branislav Šprocha, members of the Scientific Board of the CSPS as representatives of the Institute for Forecasting, who also formed the Scientific Committee of the conference. The conference opened with an invited lecture by Professor Viera Bačová from the Institute of Experimental Psychology CSPS SAS entitled "Towards a discussion on the rigor of qualitative research", the content of which resonated throughout the course of the conference. It was a great pleasure and honour for us that Professor Bačová supported the first year of the conference and contributed to its success with her lecture.

Two parallel sessions followed, during which a total of 24 scientific papers were presented. In addition to the three institutes of the Centre, papers were presented by invited guests from the Institute of Economic Research of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, the University of Economics in Bratislava and the Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences of Comenius University. The presented contributions reflected the interdisciplinarity of the Centre, the diversity and proximity of methodological approaches and the richness of issues addressed by its researchers. Six panels were assembled based on these overarching themes of the papers:

• Data, methods and definitions,
• Information and behaviour,
• Skills and transitions,
• Historical and longitudinal perspectives on society,
• Interventions and Innovations I,
• Interventions and Innovations II.

Finally, a plenary session was held, moderated by Ivana Studená from the Institute of Forecasting, where the chairs of the panels briefly presented the content of the contributions and the course of the session. The abstracts of the scientific papers presented at the conference will be published in a book of abstracts in the near future. The conference was concluded with a summary by Professor Viera Bačová and acknowledgements by Denisa Fedáková, Director of the Centre of Social and Psychological Sciences.

This event was an opportunity for us to engage in conversations about the development of scientific knowledge in our work, the boundaries of scientific disciplines and their intersections, as well as to reflect on the benefits of collaboration between institutes within the CSPS SAS. We utilised the day prior to the conference for our annual joint meeting to exchange new information on the activities of the institutes and to foster collegial relationships. We would like to thank the participants for their time, and we look forward to next edition of the ReSPS conference. 

The programme in full can be found on the website of the Institute for Forecasting in the Conferences section.