UNIVNET & ESFRI Cooperation

The UNIVNET Platform

The Faculty of Economics and Finance, Bratislava University of Economics and Business, is a member of UNIVNET — the University and Industrial Research and Education Platform of the Recycling Society, a national information and innovation platform for recycling technologies in the automotive industry.

UNIVNET is a joint effort of five Slovak research universities and the Automotive Industry Association of the Slovak Republic. Its main goal is to create a national platform for recycling technologies in the automotive industry and to contribute to higher efficiency in waste management and a reduced environmental burden, in Slovakia and beyond. The platform builds on the results of the 2016–2017 initiative “Integrated research platform for the evaluation of individual waste flows, in particular in the automotive industry” and reflects the EU’s transition toward a circular economy — encouraging recycling, reducing the consumption of primary raw materials, and securing access to critical raw materials through waste recovery.

Since 2019, UNIVNET members and research teams have published a series of joint publications and scientific studies on the status, forecasts, and new technologies of waste recovery in the automotive industry, and regularly organize expert workshops and international scientific conferences (e.g., the TOP — Engineering for Environmental Protection conference series).

Visit UNIVNET

Cooperation with ESFRI Research Infrastructures (NCPXFEL)

UNIVNET has established cooperation with the National Contact Point for European XFEL and other European Research Infrastructures (NCPXFEL & ERI), hosted by Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice.

The cooperation was initiated at the joint external meeting of the UNIVNET and SKEBA platforms held on May 19–20, 2026 in Topoľčianky, attended by the Chairman of the NCPXFEL Council, Pavol Sovák, at the invitation of Ľubomír Šooš. Both platforms bring together academic and industrial partners conducting research and education in the development of new batteries, hydrogen storage, and materials recycling — priority EU topics that are also addressed at ESFRI research infrastructures in the domains of physical sciences, materials, and energy. At the meeting, concrete steps were agreed to initiate cooperation between the platforms and NCPXFEL, with the potential to be beneficial for all parties involved.

Read the news (May 26, 2026)

Faculty Contribution: SecureData Lab as Data and Computing Infrastructure

The contribution of the Faculty of Economics and Finance to the emerging ESFRI cooperation is the provision of SecureData Lab as a data and computing infrastructure. SecureData Lab is a specialized research facility of the Department of Economic Policy that meets the highest standards for handling confidential microdata. Within the ESFRI cooperation framework, it will serve as a secure environment for:

Secure data hosting and access

Storage and controlled access to confidential and sensitive research datasets in compliance with strict data-protection and confidentiality requirements.

Computing capacity

Computational resources for data-intensive research, including the processing and analysis of large-scale microdata.

Interdisciplinary research support

Linking economic research on technology, labor markets, and the circular economy with the research agenda of the UNIVNET platform and European research infrastructures.

In this way, the Faculty complements the engineering and materials-science expertise of the UNIVNET partners with data science, economic analysis, and secure research-data infrastructure — supporting evidence-based research on the economic and societal dimensions of the circular economy and recycling technologies.