DIGIVOTE

LAUNCH CONFERENCE AGENDA

10 February 2026

Koper, Slovenia

Public conference: Voting reimagined – starting the digital conversation

Time	Session
14:00 – 14:15	Opening remarks
	Prof. Dr. Rado Bohinc, President of EMUNI
	Nena Bibica, PiNA (CERV national contact point), Presentation of CERV Funding
	Doc. DDr. Maja Pucelj, Overview of the event objectives and the DIGIVOTE project, followed by an Introduction to the discussion and panelists
14:15 – 15:00	Panel 1: Basic principles reimagined through digital voting
15:00 – 15:10	Q&A
15:10 – 15:55	Panel 2: Technological and other challenges of digital voting
15:55 – 16:05	Q&A
16:05 – 16:30	Panel 3: Summary and discussion on future steps
After 16:30	Informal networking

Chairperson:

Asst. Prof. DDr. Maja Pucelj, EMUNI University

Asst. Prof. DDr. Maja Pucelj is the Head of Research, Development and Innovation at EMUNI University. She serves as an Assistant Professor and acts as the Director of the master’s programme Digitalisation and Human Rights at EMUNI.

She graduated from the Faculty of Public Administration in Ljubljana and the Faculty of Management in Koper. She holds a master’s degree from the Faculty of Government and European Studies at the New University and from the European Faculty of Law. She completed her first doctoral degree in the humanities at Alma Mater Europaea – ISH, and her second doctoral degree at the Faculty of Government and European Studies of the New University in the field of international studies, with a focus on human rights.

She began her professional career as a police officer and member of a special police unit. She later worked as a risk manager in the leasing and banking sector, Director of Marketing in the private sector, and as an auditor in an audit company. Prior to joining Euro-Mediterranean University (EMUNI) and Faculty of organisational studies (FOŠ), she served as an Advisor to the Minister of Education, Science and Sport, covering pre-school, primary, secondary and higher education, adult education, and quality assurance in education. She also served as an Undersecretary in the Service for the Implementation of Cohesion Policy at the same ministry, where she led the preparation of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) for the Slovenian education sector.

She teaches and co-teaches courses in Human rights in the digital era, Fundamentals of Law in Organizational Studies, Organizational Behaviour, and the Seminar for Doctoral Dissertation. In 2024, she received an award from the Slovenian Ombudsman for the best PhD research in the field of human rights in Slovenia. In the same year, she completed the International Postdoctoral Programme in Globalisation and Human Rights at the Mediterranea International Centre for Human Rights Research. Her research interests focus on human rights, law, digital ethics, social responsibility, and gender equality.

Panelists:

Prof. dr. Rado Bohinc, President of EMUNI

Prof. dr. Ivan Svetlik, Faculty of Social Sciences

Dr. Ivan Svetlik completed his undergraduate and postgraduate studies in sociology at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana. He pursued further professional development in the United Kingdom at the University of Warwick and in Sweden at the Arbetslivscentrum. He earned his PhD in 1983 with a dissertation entitled Sociological Conceptualization of Unemployment.

He spent most of his academic career at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, and was also employed for three years (1988–1991) at the Institute of Sociology. His main fields of work were human resources and social studies. His research and teaching covered topics such as unemployment and employment, the labour market, education systems, quality of working life, social policy, human resource management, and related areas. Under his supervision, 15 doctoral students completed their PhDs. In cooperation with the universities of Bath, Maynooth, Tilburg, Roskilde and Complutense, he helped to establish one of the first international master’s programmes in the early 1990s that included the University of Ljubljana, namely European Social Policy Analysis.

Professor Svetlik’s bibliography includes 46 scientific articles, 33 professional articles and 25 popular articles, as well as 43 chapters in scientific monographs and 21 chapters in professional monographs. He is a co-author of 11 scientific and 12 professional monographs and three textbooks. Among his most notable works are Human Resource Management, Employment Policy, Unemployment and Employment, Social Policy in Slovenia, and University Governance and Leadership in Europe and China. In 2023, he published the study From the College of Political Sciences (1961) to the Faculty of Social Sciences (1991), and in 2024 he co-edited the edited volume Challenges to the Sustainable Development of Slovenia. His most recent publication is a co-authored article from 2024 entitled ChatGPT, Write Us an Article on the Possibilities of Using Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education. His most frequently cited articles include Balancing Pluralism: New Welfare Mixes in Care for the Elderly and Connecting Human Resource Management and Knowledge Management in European Human Resource Management Clusters. Professor Svetlik integrated Slovenian researchers into the international longitudinal Cranet project, which has been running for over 30 years. He made a decisive contribution to the development and establishment of human resource studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences.

From 1993 to 1997, Professor Svetlik served as Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, where he established the Centre for the Study of Organisations and Human Resources. Under his leadership, the construction of new faculty premises began. From 2005 to 2008, he was Vice-Rector of the University of Ljubljana, where he established the university’s career centre and tutoring system. He was the principal author of the first Strategy of the University of Ljubljana, as well as the Strategy 2013–2020. From 2013 to 2017, he served as Rector of the University of Ljubljana. During his term, he promoted the university’s stronger integration into the international academic community, reflected in the growing number of international students, international research projects, and publications by university staff, as well as their increased international visibility and citation impact. During his mandate, the University of Ljubljana Development Fund was established. The University of Ljubljana became a co-founder of The Guild, a network of leading European universities, and a co-founder of the Central European University Network CELSA together with KU Leuven, from which Professor Svetlik received a special award for promoting mutual cooperation.

Since 2017, he has been retired and continues to participate as a researcher in the international development project EUTOPIA / EUTOPIA MORE, where he is responsible for the implementation of the regional universities development programme and serves as Secretary General of the Rectors’ Forum of Universities of Southeast Europe and the Western Balkans. In 2024, he was elected President of the University Council of the University of Rijeka. In 2025, the University of Ljubljana awarded him the honorary title of Professor Emeritus. He is a co-founder and member of the presidency of the Academy of Sciences for the Sustainable Development of Slovenia.

He has cooperated with numerous European universities and institutes, as well as with the editorial boards of international journals such as International Journal of Manpower, European Journal of Vocational Training, and The Quality of Higher Education.

Through his research and development work, Professor Svetlik has made a significant contribution to the development of Slovenia. During the preparations for the transition period, he introduced the concepts of the labour market and active employment policy into the Slovenian context. He was among the authors of the Strategy for the Development of Slovenia and the new Slovenian Constitution. He contributed to the development of the education sector as the first President of the Council for Higher Education in independent Slovenia, as President of the National Commission for the Development of School Programmes, and as President of the Council for Vocational and Professional Education. He currently once again serves as President of the Council for Higher Education of the Republic of Slovenia. In these roles, he cooperated with European institutions such as the European Training Foundation (ETF) in Turin and CEDEFOP in Thessaloniki. He also served as President of the Slovenian Sociological Association and President of the Association of Human Resource Management Societies. From 2008 to 2012, he was Minister of Labour, Family and Social Affairs in the Government of the Republic of Slovenia.

Prof. dr. Jurij Toplak, Alma Mater Europaea, Fordham University, School of law

Simon Delakorda MSc, Institute for Electronic Participation

Inštitut za elektronsko participacijo (Institute for Electronic Participation) is a Slovenian expert in democracy in the digital society, with over two decades of experience in e-participation, e-democracy, and digital public policies. He holds a bachelor’s degree in social sciences from the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, where he graduated in 2002 with a thesis on electronic environmental democracy, and a Master’s degree (2009) focused on electronic participation within the institutions of the European Union. In 2007, he founded the Institute for Electronic Participation (INEPA), where he conducts both research and applied work on e-participation in the non-governmental sector, e-democracy within e-government frameworks, and public policies related to digital transformation. Since 2014, he has served as Advocacy Coordinator of the Network of NGOs for an Inclusive Information Society (NVO-VID), leading civil society advocacy on digital inclusion, digital rights, and democratic governance of digitalisation. Simon Delakorda regularly acts as a lecturer, speaker, and moderator at international expert events and has more than 20 years of experience in European projects funded under the EU 7th Framework Programme, the Norway Grants for Regional Cooperation, and programmes such as Europe for Citizens and Erasmus+. He has been actively involved in numerous expert groups and advisory bodies at national, European, and international levels. His roles include membership in the Civil Society Convention on the Future of Europe – Digital Transformation of Europe Working Group, the Strategic Group on Social Aspects of Digitalisation, and the Interministerial Working Group for the Strategy of Digital Public Services 2030. He has also contributed as an expert to the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project, represents NGOs in the Development Council of the Ljubljana Urban Region, and serves on advisory and governance bodies within national and European professional associations, including the European Citizen Action Service (ECAS). His work has been recognised with several awards, including the Slovenian Political Science Association Award for the Promotion of Political Science in Practice (2023) and the Best Paper Award at the Central and Eastern European eGov Days (2014). His bibliography includes numerous scientific, professional, and policy-oriented publications on e-participation, the information society, and digital governance, published by international academic publishers and European policy platforms.