Academic research work has been an integral part of the Nation’s Memory Institute since its establishment. At first, the research was carried out in addition to fulfilling other tasks, whereas a significant milestone was the publication of the pilot issue of the journal Pamäť národa (Nation’s Memory). From the beginning, it was defined as a professional periodical. Its contributors were precisely the Nation’s Memory Institute experts and researchers. Since 2007, as the Section of research was established, it became in charge of the academic research within the ÚPN. Moreover, scientific activities were also carried out by employees of other organisational units, especially the former Section of Documentation. In 2020, the Research Centre of the Non-Freedom Period was established. It includes the Department of Research and Education, the Department of Documentation and the Department of Audiovisual Production, which pursue scientific research activities.
The research has been carried out through approved academic research projects, in accordance with the legal mission of the ÚPN, focused precisely on the persecutions of the population, mapping of the power structures of non-democratic regimes, manifestations of resistance and acting against them, or on key historical landmarks of social development, such as the years 1939, 1948, 1968 and 1989.
Research and staffing reconstruction of the State Security as the political secret police of the Communist regime is another specific subject matter being paid attention to. Furthermore, there are research topics like the Holocaust in Slovakia, the persecution of churches and believers after the year of 1945, forced collectivisation, political trials, activities of dissent during the so-called Normalisation era, political exile in the West during the Cold War or anti-Communist resistance in Slovakia.
The outcome of the research is mainly rich publication activity in the form of monographs, collections of documents, anthologies of scholarly conferences or popularization books issued by the ÚPN. An important part of the research is also international cooperation, expressed in organizing international academic conferences in cooperation with foreign partners, or professional seminars and domestic conferences focused on specific Slovak issues.