On 12 September, the Second meeting of the Joint EU-Ukraine Committee of the Horizon Europe and Euratom programmes took place in the innovative shelter ‘CLUST Space’ of the KPI Scientific and Technical Library.
The meeting was held in a mixed mode: Some of the Ukrainian participants, led by Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine Denys Kurbatov (who acted as moderator), as well as members of the EU delegation to Ukraine - Frederik Sondegaard, Association Policy Specialist, Horizon Europe, Shaping a European Horizon, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, European Commission, and Yegor Pyvovarov, Science Adviser, EU Mission to Ukraine - were in Kyiv; part of the group, led by Signe Ratso, Deputy Director-General for Innovation, Prosperity and International Cooperation of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, travelled abroad and to other cities of Ukraine.
Ukraine was represented by the President of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Anatoliy Zagorodnyi, representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Mission of Ukraine to the EU, the National Council for Science and Technological Development, the EU Horizon Europe project office in Ukraine, and, of course, the National Technical University of Ukraine ‘Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute’. The European Union was represented by representatives of the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, the European Union Mission to Ukraine, and others.
The participants of the meeting were greeted by the Rector of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute Anatoliy Melnychenko. In his welcoming speech, he mentioned that the university has experience in participating in research projects of the European Union: one of them was implemented under the 6th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development, 5 - under the 7th Framework Programme, 6 more - in the projects of the Horizon 2020 programme, and 6 - in the projects of the Horizon Europe programme. That is, in total, our researchers are currently working on 12 such projects.
At the meeting, representatives of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Research and Innovation and Ukrainian educators and scientists discussed the impact of Russia's military aggression against Ukraine on the European research and innovation ecosystem, and the key reforms and needs in this area in Ukraine, Ukraine's status in the EU's Horizon Europe and Euratom programmes (the Euratom Research and Training Programme (2021-2025) is an additional funding programme to the Horizon Europe Programme that covers nuclear research and innovation). The meeting also considered the implementation of the ‘open science’ concept in Ukraine, updates of key EU development policy programmes, in particular in the field of research, innovation and multilateral dialogue, deepening cooperation between the European Union and Ukraine in the field of research and innovation, and measures to support our country by the European community. The meeting also approved 22 national contact points of the Horizon Europe programme, which will operate in 14 higher education institutions, 4 research institutions of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and 2 state institutions subordinated to the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Environment, including 2 of them in Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. Representatives of the European Commission provided information on innovations in the development of EU policy on the European Research Area, European innovations, a global approach to research and innovation, and multilateral dialogue. In addition, they discussed EU support for Ukraine, including the MSCA4UA, EIC4UA, EIT initiatives, the Cities Mission, and EURIZON grants for remote research for researchers from Ukraine.
As part of the discussion of the agenda, the meeting also considered the interim results of Ukraine's participation in the EU's Horizon Europe programme (it will run until 2027), as well as examples of successful projects from Ukrainian teams in this programme on the topics of previous years. They were presented by the heads of scientific institutions and organisations, including Anatolii Zahorodnii, President of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Yevhen Dykyi, Head of the Ukrainian National Antarctic Research Centre, Ivan Kulchytskyi, President of the Agency for European Innovation, and others. Among other things, the speeches included statistics on the involvement of domestic research teams in Horizon Europe projects, and that Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute ranked third in terms of financial income from participation in these projects.
‘As the rector has already said, our researchers are currently working on 12 projects funded by the European Commission,’ Serhii Shukaiev, Head of the International Project Coordination Unit of the Department of International Cooperation of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, commented on the statistics for Kyiv Polytechnic. ’In total, these projects add about €2 million to the university's budget for science. The main thing is that we have created a system for developing and encouraging our project activities. It involves working with both departments and individual scientists. We have websites, Telegram channels, Facebook pages through which we disseminate this information, we print relevant information, and conduct all kinds of trainings - both short seminars and webinars and, as part of staff development, courses on preparing, writing, and submitting international projects. In the past academic year 2023-2024 alone, 70 employees took these courses. In total, about 200 people have already attended them.’
As mentioned above, the Horizon Europe Programme will run until 2027. But, according to Serhii Shukaiev, Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute has already reached the level of the previous five-year Horizon 2020 programme in terms of the number of projects currently underway, and in terms of project applications, it has already exceeded the then-current figures: while 60 project applications were submitted in total, of which 6 projects were selected, 90 applications have already been submitted, and not all have been evaluated yet, so there is hope that Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute researchers will work on other projects. Moreover, the application process is ongoing, so we can hope for a further increase in the involvement of Kyiv Polytechnics in the work on the most relevant projects for the European research and education space. This is very important for us today.
A meeting of the Ukraine-EU/Euratom Committee on Research and Innovation, organized by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, was held at KPI.During the event, the participants discussed the results and prospects of Ukrainian scientists' participation in the Horizon Europe Program, as well as outlined new opportunities provided by cooperation with the EU scientific community.
“There are actually a lot of opportunities: attracting high funding for projects, equipment, and necessary materials; collaboration with leading scientists from Europe and the world; cooperation with large consortia and businesses,” Denys Kurbatov, Deputy Minister of Education and Science for Science and Innovation.
KPI is among those universities that are currently demonstrating successful experience in integrating their scientists into EU research and innovation framework programs. After all, our university leads the top three organizations in terms of the largest amounts of funding from Horizon Europe.
“Kyiv Polytechnic already has quite good teams that know how to prepare project proposals, have enough communication with European partners to prepare projects, know how to exchange scientific data, and understand the rules of the European Union for the formation of project proposals,” said Hryhorii Mozolevych, Director General of the Directorate for Science Development of the Ministry of Education and Science.
“Now, on the basis of our university, there are two National Contact Points in the following areas: “Climate, Energy and Mobility” and ‘Widening Participation and Strengthening the European Research Area’. Here, researchers will be helped to properly apply for grants, receive funding, support and collaboration with leading European scientists to implement joint large-scale research projects!