SKOLA KOMUNIKACIE A MEDII NO

Their core work

SKOLA KOMUNIKACIE A MEDII (SKAMBA) is a Bratislava-based non-profit school of communication and media that contributes specialist expertise in political communication, media literacy, and civic education to European research consortia. Their H2020 work spans two distinct but related threads: studying how social media shapes policy discourse (COMPACT) and empirically analysing how populist movements affect democratic participation across Europe (DEMOS). In practice, they bring a practitioner-educator lens — the ability to translate research findings for public and policy audiences — rather than purely academic output. This makes them particularly valuable for the dissemination and public engagement components of large multi-country research projects.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Both H2020 projects started within a year of each other (2017 and 2018), so a long-term trajectory is difficult to establish with confidence. What the keyword data does reveal is a clear shift in depth: the earlier COMPACT project left no subject-matter keywords in the CORDIS record, suggesting a more applied, dissemination-oriented role, while the later DEMOS project is tagged with a rich set of political science terms — populism, democratic efficacy, comparative analysis, experimental research, political scenarios. This points toward a deepening of substantive research engagement rather than just communication support. If the pattern holds beyond H2020, SKAMBA appears to be moving from a media-practitioner role toward a more analytically grounded political communication research identity.

SKAMBA is shifting from applied science communication toward empirical comparative research on democracy and populism — making them an increasingly credible research partner, not only a dissemination resource.

How they like to work

SKAMBA has never held a coordinator role, appearing as a participant in both projects. With 29 unique partners across 21 countries from just two projects, they consistently join large, geographically diverse pan-European consortia rather than small bilateral efforts. This pattern suggests they are brought in to fill a defined specialist slot — media literacy, civic communication, or dissemination — rather than to lead scientific agendas. Working with them is likely straightforward: they occupy a bounded, well-scoped role within complex consortia.

29 unique partners across 21 countries from only 2 projects reflects participation in genuinely large pan-European consortia averaging around 14 organisations per project. There is no evidence of a recurring partnership cluster, suggesting their network is broad but not deeply anchored in any single research community.

What sets them apart

As a non-profit school of communication and media — not a university department or think tank — SKAMBA occupies an unusual niche in the Slovak research landscape: combining practitioner media training with academic-style research on democracy and political communication. Few Slovak institutions simultaneously work on social media policy (COMPACT) and comparative populism studies (DEMOS), making them a rare bridge between media education and political science research. For consortium builders, they are a credible Slovak partner who can handle public communication deliverables while also contributing substantive analysis on how citizens engage with democratic processes.

Highlights from their portfolio

• COMPACT
  The largest-funded project for this organisation (EUR 196,312) and the one that established their H2020 track record, focusing on the intersection of social media awareness and evidence-based policy.
• DEMOS
  A high-profile comparative political science project spanning 2018-2022 that placed SKAMBA at the centre of European populism research — the richest keyword profile in their portfolio and their longest active engagement.