Oldrich Krpec, Ph.D., is director of the International Institute of Political Science of the Masaryk University (IIPS) and assistant professor at the Department of International Relations and European Studies at the Faculty of Social Studies of the same university. His research interests are mainly the topics related to international political economy, common trade policy of the European Union and interest representation in democratic political system. He serves also as a director of research program named Global Political Economy at the IIPS and equally as a director of study program Economic Policy and International Relations at the Faculty of Social Studies.

Marian Belko studied political science at the Faculty of Social Studies of the Masaryk University in Brno. He is currently a doctoral student of the European Studies program at the same faculty. Moreover, he studies Economic Policy and Administration at the Faculty of Economics and Administration of the Masaryk University and he also studied international negotiation during his stay at the University of Oslo. He is interested in research on the importance of negotiation in international relations, domestic politics of the Slovak Republic, its foreign policy and in the relation between economics and politics in general.

From 2006 onwards, he has been serving as a research fellow and project manager at the International Institute of Political Science. He has been responsible for the project carried out in cooperation with Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. He has been involved in numerous activities aimed towards enhancing research in the field of international relations, provoking scholarly discussion and enriching existing public knowledge on domestic politics, European Union and international relations in general. Publications and international conferences are some of the outcomes of these projects.

Filip Černoch, Ph.D. is Junior Research Fellow at the IIPS MU and Head of Unit of the Energy Security Section of the IIPS MU as well. After earning his PhD in European studies he also works as a specialist at the Department of International relations and European studies. From July 2008 onwards, he was Vice-Director of Azerbaijan and Caspian Studies Center in the same institution. During the period from January 2007 until December 2008, he had also worked as Editor of weekly magazine with focus on economics named Profit.

Among other activities, Filip Černoch also teaches and co-teaches undergraduate and graduate courses such as Contemporary Processes in the EU, Czech Foreign Policy, Geopolitics and Energy Security. His academic interest is focused mainly in European Union market and energy security. His most recent research activities encompass analysis on the potential of liquefied natural gas for the purposes of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Czech republic, or research on common energy policy of the European Union.

Eltay Dilbazi, Ph.D. studied international relations and European studies at the Faculty of Social Studies of the Masaryk University in Brno where he also continued as a doctoral student. He has published the study on Russia as a geopolitical actor in post-Soviet area and Ethnical conflicts in post-communist area. He is interested in energy security, geopolitics, Caspian region and Caucasus. As a research fellow at the International Institute of Political Science of the Masaryk University, Eltay Dilbazi has been holding the post of co-director of the Azerbaijan and Caspian Studies Center.

Hubert Smekal, M.A., Ph.D. is educated in law (master's degree at the Faculty of Law of the Masaryk University). He also studied Governance and Politics of European Integration at the University of Bologna (M.A.) and doctoral program European Studies at the Faculty of Social Studies of the Masaryk University (Ph.D.). In 2008, he has been studying courses on EU politics and democratization in interdependent world at the IBEI Summer School in Barcelona. He focuses on human rights in the European Union, European Court of Justice, European and international law.

From 2005, he has been working as assistant, and from 2008 as assistant professor at the Department of International Relations and European Studies of the Masaryk University. From 2005, he has also been research assistant to project named Political Actors in the Process of Europeanization and Internationalization of the Politics in Czech Republic and assistant of the director of E.MA for Czech Republic. From 2004, he has also been lecturing the courses on European Integration at the Summer School University of Toronto.

Jan Závěšický studied international territorial studies at the Faculty of Social Studies of the Masaryk University in Brno. Currently he is working as a research fellow at the International Institute of Political Science of Masaryk University, where he also studies doctoral program. His activities include organizing and lecturing during numerous projects related mainly to the topic of European integration. He organized several conferences, seminars and PR campaigns on EU politics and security policy. Jan Závěšický is interested in European security and defense policy, security policy in general, terrorism, armed conflicts and their resolution, international security organizations, and European Union. His scholarly interests also include political education and the problems of human resources development in terms of economy and social cohesiveness of the EU. He was awarded Jaroslav Janda Prize for significant contribution in the field of security policy of the Czech Republic.

Jana Kovačovská is currently studying Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences at Columbia University (M. A., expected in 2012) as a recipient of the Fulbright scholarship. She received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Masaryk University (2008 and 2010
respectively) in International Relations. She spent a semester abroad at Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris - Sciences Po (2009) and
participated in several summer schools and graduate conferences (LSE, ECPR, CEU). She was Director of the Azerbaijan and Caspian Studies Center as well as Editor-in-Chief of Center-run journal in 2010-2011. Jana Kovačovská has been cooperating with the IIPS since 2008. Her scholarly interests include foreign policy analysis and energy policy.

Hedvika Koďousková has obtained master's degree in International Relations at the Faculty of Social Studies of the Masaryk University, where she's also obtained B.A. from Sociology and International Relations. She is currently working as a PhD candidate at the same institution. She focuses on energy security in international relations with special attention on China and its influence on existing global energy system. During her studies, she has also experienced one-term study stay at the University of Ljubljana.

Lukáš Hoder is doctoral candidate at the Department of International Relations and European Studies at the Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University. His scholarly interests encompass transatlantic relations, international law and legalization of the states foreign policies. He graduated from law, international relations and political science, he was also lawyer at the Czech Government Council for Human Rights. Since 2006, he has been editor in chief of the online scholarly journal Global Politics.

Petr Ocelík is PhD candidate at the Department of International Relations and European Studies at the Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, where he is also studying master's program in Political Science. He has been interested in energy security issues, geopolitics and theories of international relations. Petr Ocelík has also co-authored the analysis for the purposes of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic on the potential of liquefied natural gas for energy security of the European Union.

Lubomir Majercik, LL.M., has studied law at the Faculty of Law, Masaryk University. He also obtained graduate degree in international relations and European studies at the Faculty of Social Studies at the same university. Moreover, he has studied Human Rights at the Central European University in Budapest (LL.M.). He is currently a Ph.D. student at the Department of International Relations and European Studies at the Masaryk University and a lawyer at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. His scholarly interests include human rights law, war crimes and their prosecution.

After her study at the Higher professional school of commerce and law, Lucie Morkovska, DiS. has started to work as an assistant at the International Institute of Political Science of Masaryk University. She also worked as an economist for the project financed by European Structural Funds. She is currently occupying the position of assistant who is in charge of publishing agenda of the institute.

Ondrej Schütz got master's degree in Political Sciences at the Faculty of Social Studies of the Masaryk University where he is now continuing as a Ph.D. student. He spent one semester at University of Ljubljana, Slovenia as an exchange student. He also attended Visegrad Summer School 2009, Summer School of Development Cooperation 2009 and Summer School of Ethnicity and Migration Studies 2010. He is external expert for foreign policy and international relations of Conservative Institute of M. R. Štefánik and he collaborated on its project Advocacy for Civil Rights and Freedom in Slovakia and Support of Value Oriented Slovak Foreign Policy. He is a member and since 2009 also executive president of Debate Society of Masaryk University. He is part of IIPS since 2009. He is responsible for research project National Populism in the Countries of Visegrad, which is executed by IIPS and its foreign partners.