How can scientific infrastructure be developed to strengthen Ukrainian science and higher education after the war?
This question was raised within the Horizon Europe program to the partners of the Consortium for the project Research Infrastructures for the Future of Ukraine: Roadmap for Sustained Growth and Recovery (RIFF), aimed at supporting research infrastructures in Ukraine. The project, to be implemented in 2025–2028, is the only one of its kind in Europe.
Lviv Polytechnic is among the partners of the project Consortium. Representing the university, Nataliya Chukhray, Head of the Department of Management of Organization, the Institute of Economics and Management, Professor Andrii Lozynsky, the Department of Theoretical and General Electrical Engineering, the Institute of Power Engineering and Control Systems, and Rector Nataliia Shakhovska took an active part in the project events held in Brno, Czech Republic.
In total, 14 organizations from Europe and Ukraine are participating in RIFF, coordinated by Masaryk University. The goal of the project is to strengthen the Ukrainian system of research and innovation by creating a roadmap for Ukrainian research infrastructure.
On September 16, the kick-off meeting of the Consortium participants took place at Masaryk University. And the next day, as part of the RIFF project in Brno, dozens of specialists from Europe and Ukraine gathered for the Conference on Ukraine’s Reconstruction in Research and Higher Education. This event served as a prologue to the RIFF project.
The conference brought together distinguished participants, including Vasyl Zvarych, Ambassador of Ukraine to the Czech Republic; Radim Polčák, Vice-Rector of Masaryk University; and Václav Velčovský from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic. The discussion was further enriched by Jan Mrkvička, Director for Development at Člověk v tísni («People in Need») organisation, along with representatives of Ukrainian institutions – Hryhoriy Mozolevych, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, and Nataliia Shakhovska, Rector of Lviv Polytechnic. In addition, the European Commission, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the French Research Center CEFRES, the British Embassy in Kyiv, as well as partners from Austria, Sweden and Poland, presented their strategies and visions for project implementation.
The first meetings of Lviv Polytechnicians in Brno proved highly productive. We continue to actively work on expanding our university’s involvement in international scientific and educational programs!
