Václav Moravec
Lead Coordinator
Václav is the main coordinator and chairs the strategic board of the CEDMO consortium. He is a researcher at the Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism in the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University and at the Department of Production at FAMU in Prague. He specializes in the transformation of audiovisual media, journalistic ethics, automated journalism and artificial intelligence journalism. He is the principal investigator of several European and Czech research grants (e.g. DIGITAL-2023-DEPLOY-04, project 101158609). He is a member of the executive committee of the PRG.AI initiative for artificial intelligence.
Nik Hynek
Head Of Research
Prof. Nik Hynek, PhD (Bradford), is a social scientist working across a range of disciplines, topics, and methods. He examines configurations in which security, spatiality, and power intersect, recombine and produce institutionalised composite systems and assemblages. His full professorship is in Political and Cultural Geography; habilitation in Theory of Politics; and PhD in Security Studies. He was a visiting research scholar at the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University in New York; The London School of Economics and Political Science; Australian National University; PRIO; Carleton University in Ottawa; and Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto.
His articles can be found at Google Scholar. For books, check out his Amazon Author Page.
Anja Grabovac
Project Manager
Anja is a project manager at CEDMO. She supports the smooth running of project activities and deliverables and coordinates consortium activities. Anja has experience with both the private and non-governmental sectors. Previously, she was involved in HR and project management with a focus on the areas of the European integration process and disinformation in the context of the Western Balkans region. She holds a Master’s degree in International Relations and European Studies and spent one year in Budapest at the Central European University (CEU).
Táňa Abrhámová
Communications Manager
Táňa has worked as CEDMO’s Communications Manager since February 2024. She has 15 years of experience in public relations, advertising and media – from both the corporate and non-profit spheres. Prior to joining CEDMO, she worked for several years at People in Need, where she led the media team for the One World in Schools educational program and coordinated communications for the Czech Safer Internet Center consortium. She graduated in Business Economics and Management from the University of Economics in Prague with a minor in Economic Journalism.
Monika Balcová
Digital Media Manager
Monika holds the position of Digital Media Manager and is responsible for managing CEDMO’s social media profiles. Previously, she gained experience in the field of communication at the European Commission, both as a Representative of the European Commission in Bratislava and as an intern in the office of the Director General for Communication. Monika also gained valuable work experience at the humanitarian organisation People in Need. She specializes in effective communication and effective response to disinformation. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations and European Studies. She is currently completing her Master’s degree in European Studies at Masaryk University in Brno.
Beáta Gavurová
Deputy Head of Research
Beáta is a professor and researcher at the Centre for Applied Economic Research at Tomas Bata University in Zlín. Her professional interests include the development of models and methods for public policy making, as well as their evaluation mechanisms. In her research area, she is actively involved in the issues of regional disparities in macroeconomic and microeconomic dimensions, the process of computerization and standardization in various sectors, and the sustainability of economic and social systems at the national and international level. She collaborates with institutions in the preparation of action plans and strategies in the fields of computerisation, regional development, investment and environmental policies and public health. She has authored and co-authored more than 480 publications. At CEDMO, she is responsible for the coordination and implementation of international grants.
Lukáš Kutil
Data Analyst
Lukáš is a data analyst for the CEDMO Trends longitudinal panel survey. He has experience in theoretical research from the public sector, as well as applied research and market research from the private sector. Lukáš is a psychologist by training and previously worked in clinical research and psychological diagnosis. In addition, he is involved in project management and is a member of the methodological group responsible for questionnaire development, including the implementation of long-term strategies.
Karolína Gawlowská
Graphics and IT Specialist
Karolína works as an IT specialist with a focus on graphic design. She has experience in the private sector as a graphic designer, programmer and web application administrator. She works with software such as Figma, Affinity Photo, VS Code and others. She uses logical AI tools of all kinds to do her work and is proficient in several programming languages (Python, Java, C, R, SQL and web development languages). She graduated in Information Technology at Charles University in Prague.
Michal Šenk
Researcher on Security and Digital Technologies
Michal is a researcher at CEDMO and a PhD candidate at the Department of Security Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University. At CEDMO, he specializes in issues ranging from hybrid warfare to elections in the Central European region to the impact of technology on society and security. Between 2023-2024, he represented CEDMO in the highly successful EDMO Task Force on 2024 European Elections. In his academic work, Michal does research on British and American hegemonies, political realism, and the theory of International Relations.
Vanda Boštíková
Researcher on disinformation related to biomedicine
Vanda analyzes disinformation and misinformation in the field of biomedicine for Coffee Beans. Her experience and contacts from many years of working for universities in the US (University of Iowa, Emory University) and the Atlanta CDC allow her to compare public health and safety issues not only within the European but also within the American environment. She has published more than 150 articles, including contributions to international monographs, indexed in Scopus and Web of Science databases. She has lectured at Charles University and the University of Defence, as well as at a number of international conferences. She is the author of the book Viral Infections.
Aleš Macela
Researcher on Disinformation Related to Healthcare and Infectious Diseases
Aleš Macela is professor emeritus at the University of Defence in Brno. His scientific work in the field of infection biology is focused on the early stages of host-pathogen interactions with a special interest in the early natural immune responses of hosts. He has also been involved in basic research on biological response modifiers. He has published more than 60 papers in international scientific journals (see Web of Knowledge). In the framework of the CEDMO project, Prof. Macela has been working on the issue of misinformation in healthcare and protection against both infectious and non-infectious diseases. Related to this is his interest in stress issues, given that disinformation is a significant stressor.
Petr Gongala
Fact-checking
Petr Gongala is the coordinator of Demagog.cz, the sole dedicated fact-checking project in the Czech Republic. He has worked as a fact-checker, authored promise-tracking publications and set up voting apps as part of the team at KohoVolit.eu. Besides activism, Petr took part in political research as a quantitative analyst focused on geostatistics and predictive analysis of voting. He is also a senior research analyst at IDC, working with large datasets in advanced statistical models, designing interactive maps and presentations of statistical results.
Joyce Zablit
Fact Checking
Jocelyne is involved in fact-checking activities at CEDMO. She is also a project manager and AFP journalist with more than 30 years of professional experience. She is currently leading several fact-checking and disinformation projects in Europe. During her career at AFP, she has managed several bureaus. Most recently, she served as West Coast Bureau Chief based in Los Angeles. Prior to that, she served as AFP’s Europe/Africa English Bureau Chief, AFP’s Beirut Bureau Chief, European Affairs Correspondent and then as Lifestyle Editor in Washington.
Karina Stasiuk-Krajewska
Impact of Disinformation on Society Research
Professor Karina Stasiuk-Krajewska is a media expert. She specializes in media theory and communication ethics. She is the author of more than 100 publications, mostly in Polish, including three books. Her research focuses on communication, mass media theory and axiology. She is also interested in the professionalization of various branches of public communication, especially journalism and public relations, and in the theory and methodology of discourse analysis in the approaches developed by Foucault, Laclau and Mouffe.
Mária Bieliková
AI Fact-Checking
Mária is the Director General and researcher at the Kempelen Institute for Intelligent Technologies (KInIT) in Bratislava. She is a former member of the High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence set up by the European Commission and is still involved in national and European discussions on trustworthy AI. She currently chairs the Standing Committee on Ethics and Regulation of Artificial Intelligence established by the Slovak Ministry of Investment, Regional Development and Informatics. Mária’s research focuses on the analysis of human-computer interaction, machine learning with limited data sources and the area of trustworthiness of information on the web. Her articles can be found here.
Lucie Šťastná
Media Literacy
Lucie is working on media literacy within the CEDMO project. She also works as a researcher at the Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism at Charles University (MIRA group), focusing mainly on media literacy, media education and parent mediation. She has been involved in various projects in this field for over ten years. In 2015-2018, she led or co-led research projects that tracked various areas of media literacy in the Czech Republic. In 2018-2020, she led part of the project “Supporting the development of digital literacy” at the Faculty of Education of Charles University, focused on preschool education. In 2017-2018, she co-organised expert seminars in the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic focused on the discussion of the future of Czech media education.