The event was organized by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences jointly with ETH Zurich and the Simons Foundation.

The main goal of the event which brought together the main science stakeholders from the US and Europe was to find ways to strengthen Ukraine’s ecosystem. The workshop provided a platform for exchanging ideas, discussing topical issues and identifying concrete steps to integrate Ukraine’s fragmented science and innovation system.

The key topics of the two-day workshop include, but are not limited to:

• Ways to develop and integrate Ukraine’s research and innovation system;
• Strategies and tools to bridge different silos;
• Strengthening collaboration for Ukraine’s science and innovation based recovery and growth: leveraging partnerships, resources and coordination;
• Building global partnerships: lessons from Ukraine’s international institutional cooperation;
• Strengthening science and education cooperation within Ukraine;
• Bridging science and policy: advancing evidence-based decision-making.

Ukraine’s representatives at the workshop included, among others, Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine Denys Kurbatov, Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine Valeria Ionan, and Executive Director of the National Research Foundation of Ukraine Olga Polotska.

As part of the event, Olga Polotska joined a dialogue on strategies to strengthen Ukraine’s science and innovation ecosystem. During the workshop, she presented the current situation in the field of research, the challenges and needs faced by Ukrainian researchers, and presented international activities and joint initiatives of the Foundation. Another important element of her participation was communication with counterparts from other countries on current issues and prospects of Ukraine’s integration into global research networks, as well as opportunities and development of further cooperation.

One of the key tools for implementing the objectives set at this two-day workshop is the Science and Innovation Fund for Ukraine, an initiative that was created to support and develop research, innovation and technology in Ukraine, especially in times of war, in order to stimulate the recovery and modernization of Ukrainian science and technology. The main objective of the Fund is to finance various research projects and start-ups aimed at solving key issues, mainly regarding the infrastructure recovery, defence, energy, medical technologies, etc.

The joint efforts of the representatives of Ukraine and international partners who came together at this workshop open up new prospects for supporting research and innovation in Ukraine, developing research initiatives, and create a solid foundation for future cooperation at the global level.