On November 18, 2020, the Government approved the draft resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine “On Amendments to the Resolutions of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine of July 4, 2018 № 528 and December 4, 2019 № 1007”. The resolution aims to create opportunities for the National Research Foundation of Ukraine (NRFU) to finance projects selected as the winners of joint competitions conducted by the State Foundation for Fundamental Research (SFFR) together with foreign scientific organizations.

In 2017-2018, SFFR together with foreign scientific organizations held competitions for joint research projects and selected winners. The terms of the tenders envisaged that funding for the Ukrainian part of the projects would begin in 2018-2019. However, due to the reorganization of the SFFR, which began in early 2019, research agreements with the winners of joint competitions were not concluded and the funds were not transferred to the winners.

Due to this, the NRFU was not able to finance Ukrainian organizations in accordance with current legislation. The research institutions and higher education institutions, which were recognized as winners of joint competitions, were not able to start work on projects due to lack of decision on their funding. At the same time, foreign partners, for their part, were actively implementing their parts of research projects.

After confirming the relevance of research projects by the decision of the temporary commission established by the National Research Foundation of Ukraine, the winners, determined by the SFFR Council, will be provided grant support at the expense of the free balance of the NRFU budget.