doc. Ing. Peter Sika, PhD.

Participation in conducting (leading) the most important research projects or art projects over the last six years

Acientific Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education, Research, Development and Youth of the Slovak Republic and the Slovak Academy of Sciences No. 1/0226/23 "Socio-economic challenges and opportunities related to aging policy to ensure sustainable economic growth and innovation". Type of participation: project leader. Solution period: 2023-2026. Abstract: Population aging is already one of the biggest challenges for all EU countries and hurts all spheres of society. That is why the European Commission, in its Green Paper on Aging 2021, also calls for a debate on new opportunities and opportunities for an aging European society. The projected growth in the number of elderly people and the decline in the economically active is perceived not only as an economic but also a social threat. We are unlikely to be able to reverse this undesirable process, so it is necessary to shift the negative perception of the aging process as a burden on public finances to the perception of aging as an opportunity for sustainable economic growth. In our project, we set ourselves the goal of identifying innovative socio-economic challenges and opportunities related to the aging population and proposing a framework of systemic measures to ensure economic growth and innovation using the potential of a growing group of silver generation in the Slovak Republic.

Slovak Research and Development Agency of the Ministry of Education, Research, Development and Youth of the Slovak Republic No. APVV-24-0350 "Generation gold: challenges and opportunities to realize its full potential in the context of the labour market". The project focuses on basic research on the potential and risks of the generation gold in the context of the labour market and public policymaking as the basis for building a sustainable society. The age group 50-64 years old represents almost 20% of the total population, which creates significant potential as well as risks for economic development. The project is unique in its kind, as there are no research studies in the European area that would identify the potential and risks of the generation gold from the perspective of societal challenges and opportunities in the field of public policies. In addition, the project does not focus only on the negative aspects of ageing, but on the contrary, emphasizes the identification of opportunities arising from it. The project follows the recommendations of the European Commission, which in the 2021 Green Paper on Ageing calls for a discussion on the challenges and opportunities of an ageing European society and develops this aspect in the conditions of the Slovak Republic. Mixed research will be oriented towards the barriers and potential of the generation gold on the labour market from the perspective of the group itself as well as from the perspective of employers. At the same time, we will also point out the opportunities of this generation in the process of active ageing. Through a systemic approach, we will summarize the knowledge obtained and subsequently examine it in mutual connections related to the generation gold in the national economic context. The outcome of the project will be the scientific processing of the readiness of selected public policies - in the field of the labour market and ageing - and the formulation of recommendations for expected changes with regard to the generation gold.

Acientific Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education, Research, Development and Youth of the Slovak Republic and the Slovak Academy of Sciences No. 1/0251/19 "Households housing investments and the possibility of their alternative use as additional income at the time of receipt of the pension benefit". Type of participation: project leader. Solution period: 2019-2022. Abstract: Existing ongoing pension systems funding puts increasing demands on productive populations and taxpayers and is also a burden on government budgets. The priority area within the public policies of the EU member states is to ensure sustainable and adequate old-age pensions, which, in the current situation, the underdevelopment of financial resources is not easy. For this reason, we sought to identify alternative ways of financing the saturation of the needs of retirement people through investment wealth in real estate that could be incorporated into the reformed pension system. Within the framework of the project, we will address: the current efficiency of pension systems in selected countries. We will set out approaches to their quantification with a link to the standard of living of retirees. We will propose alternative ways of financing the seniors' living needs and, based on empirical data, we will verify the effectiveness of the model.