On June 16-18, 2026, the delegation of the Ukrainian Cluster Alliance and partners of EDIH Kyiv Hitech took part in the 4th Smart Industry Mission to the Czech Republic. The mission program covered a visit to 4 leading Czech digital innovation hubs (EDIH) in Prague and Brno. This mission’s outcome report reveals the details of the trip.

The context of the visit

The delegation included representatives of the UCA clusters – members of the APPAU (Soft-Elegance, Bosch-Rexrot and IT-entreprise), the Prykarpattia Industrial Cluster (Imperative), the Ukrainian Industrial Cluster (Motorimpex), Podolsk Fashion Cluster (“Podillya Shoes” and “Private Printing House”), the Ukrainian Cyber Security Cluster and Sumy Energy Engineering Cluster (Heads), as well as representatives of EDIH KYIV Hitech. 

The main purpose of the trip is to present to the Ukrainian industrial SME opportunities to cooperate with the Czech EDIH, which are now entering the 2nd major stage of their growth (the first was since 2018) and are now opening new opportunities for cooperation with Ukrainian SMEs.

The time of the trip and the context of the mission is very successful for both UCA and EDIH Kyiv Hitech clusters and for the development of the Ukrainian innovation ecosystem in general.

• First, we are launching EDIH Kyiv Hitech, one of the first Ukrainian consortiums in DIHS since 2021, but which only in May received funding from the European Commission and thus officially starts. The coordinator of EDIH Kyiv Hitech is UCA, so it is not surprising that our first visit in this status took place in 6 clusters. 
• Secondly, the Czech EDIH is moving to the second stage of its development. If the previous 7 years they formed their own service portfolios and developed infrastructure, today they work as mature innovation support centers and actively open their opportunities for international cooperation. 
• Third, for the first time, Ukrainian SMEs are given a real opportunity to use the services of the Czech EDIH and test centers on almost the same terms as local SMEs. It is not just about consultations, but also about access to laboratories, test sites, AI-platforms, digital twins, robotics, cyber polygons and engineering expertise.

If we take our previous 4 years of visits to the Czech Republic, this mission has become a continuation of the intensive development of the Ukrainian-Czech partnership in the field of innovation, digitalization and industrial modernization. Of particular importance to this are the new approaches to the reconstruction of Ukraine, which were discussed the day before in discussions about the new architecture of the reconstruction and modernization of energy infrastructure, and where digital transformation is seen as one of the key drivers of the competitiveness of the future economy. 

Czech EDiH and Test Centers: What the Ukrainian delegation saw

In chronological order, we provide the main information about visits.

CIIRC CTU and AI-Matters Prague: from laboratory to industrial AI

The Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics became the first point of the program.CIIRC CTU) in Prague, which is one of the key participants in the European project AI-matters.

AI-Matters is one of the largest European testing and experimentation facilities (TEF) for artificial intelligence in production. Its main goal is to help companies transfer the AI solution from the prototype level to the industrial implementation.

The peculiarity of the AI-Matters approach is to work with technologies at levels 6-8, when the solution already exists, but requires testing, validation and adaptation to real production conditions. For this purpose, a network of test sites in Prague, Brno, Ostrava and other EU countries has been created, together with 25 participants in the project.

The Ukrainian delegation got acquainted with the possibilities of TEF and services that cover such areas of specialization as – robotic production lines, machine vision systems, digital twins, autonomous logistics platforms, AI-algorithm testing environments for production.

Particularly important for Ukrainian companies is the opportunity to access such test environments with a discount of 80-100% of the cost through funding from Digital Europe Programme.

In fact, this means that Ukrainian developers of AI-solutions and industrial companies can test their own products in real production without the need to create such infrastructure on their own.

Yevgen Timchenko, Director of Corporate Communications and Head of the Technical Department at the MOTORIMPEX Group of Companies, on “his case study and opportunities for collaboration on AI”:

“For MOTORIMPEX, digitalization is, first and foremost, a way to scale sales without losing our unique engineering expertise. Today, our specialists manually work with thousands of equivalents, cross-references, and technical solutions accumulated over many years. That is why we are developing Engineering AI Copilot—a tool that will help quickly analyze technical documentation, find compatible solutions, and support engineers when preparing proposals for clients.

Our visit to CIIRC CTU showed that we can test such solutions on real-world data using the “test before invest” principle, and our introduction to Brain4Industry confirmed the practicality of this approach: we saw how AI assistants are already working in complex professional environments. For us, this confirmed that artificial intelligence can be more than just a document search tool—it can be a full-fledged tool for supporting engineering decisions. We expect that implementing this approach will reduce the processing time for typical engineering requests by 50–80%.”

BRAIN4INDUSTRY is a potential partner of the “Additive Technologies”

The second point of the tour was Edih Brain4industry (B4I), located in Dolny Brzeżan near Prague. BRAIN4INDUSTRY is a consortium of scientific institutions, universities and technology companies that specializes in digitization of production, artificial intelligence and additive technologies.

Its service model is especially interesting for Ukraine, as it is based on three areas:

1. Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence. Services include digital audits and digital strategies development, digital twins and AI production solutions, AI business assistants, and data integration throughout the product life cycle.

2. Additive production and engineering. Brain4industry has a powerful infrastructure for metal 3D printing, prototyping, mathematical modeling, testing and validation, materials science, design of products for additive production.

At one time, 2 years ago, KPI employees have already visited this ECI as part of another UCA mission, and today’s growth NP “Additive Technologies”, which is in KPI to some extent is the result of that visit. But real cooperation is just beginning.

3. Education and consulting. Through Brain4Industry Academy, companies can receive training in digitalization, AI, innovation management, ESG and technology entrepreneurship.

The real cases demonstrated by the Brain4industry management became especially valuable for the Ukrainian delegation. Among them:

• Predictive Maintenance system for industrial enterprises;
• AI-assistant to work with corporate knowledge;
• digital twins;
• topological optimization of parts;
• metal 3D printing of complex components;
• Accelerated prototyping of new products.

For Ukrainian companies, this means the opportunity not only to get advice, but to go through a full cycle from digital audit to creating a prototype or AI-solution.

Oksana Yurchyshyn, EDIH Kyiv Hitech coordinator at KPI – “On the National Project ‘Additive Technologies’ and Potential Areas of Cooperation”
The Science Park is interested in collaboration both in partnership with EDIH Brain4Industry (B4I) – particularly regarding digital audits and the development of digital strategies in the field of additive technologies – and in potential collaboration with Czech EDIHs to obtain services related to digital tools for prosthetics.

CEITEC BRNO – an example of how teams of scientists work for business

The second day of the mission began in Brno on the basis of CEITEC and BRNO AI-Matters Testbed. Unlike the Prague site, which is more focused on robotics and production systems, CEITEC demonstrates the integration of advanced research with applied industrial tasks.

Participants learned about opportunities:

• digital twins;
• autonomous production systems;
• robotic complexes;
• AI for production;
• intelligent planning systems;
• Testing of innovative products in a real environment.

An important conclusion of the Ukrainian delegation is how closely integrated EDH, TEF, research centers and business are in the Czech Republic. In practice, this means that the company receives a single trajectory of support – from idea to work prototype. This is exactly the model EDIH Kyiv Hitech is trying to build today in Ukraine.

Mykhailo Glukhovskyi, “Private Printing House” Service Center – “For ‘Private Printing House,’ artificial intelligence has already become one of the key areas of transformation in production and management. We are working on solutions for configuring production equipment, production planning and scheduling, as well as supporting management processes.

Our visit to CEITEC and the Brno AI-MATTERS Testbed demonstrated just how deeply Czech research teams are integrated into solving practical business challenges. We saw the infrastructure and expertise that can significantly accelerate the implementation of our AI projects. Particularly valuable is the “test before invest” approach, which allows us to test innovative solutions before making large-scale investments and to focus resources on projects with the greatest potential. We are convinced that this collaboration opens up new opportunities both for our company and for Ukrainian manufacturers in general.”

Cybersecurity Innovation Hub: Cyber Ranges and Preparing for New Threats

The Cybersecurity Innovation Hub and the CyberRangeCZ cyber range in Brno served as the program’s culminating elements. While most Ukrainian companies today view cybersecurity as a support function, the Czech approach demonstrates a completely different logic. Cybersecurity is regarded as an integral part of digital transformation.

CyberRangeCZ allows users to simulate cyberattacks, conduct team training, test the resilience of critical systems, verify digital solutions before their launch, and practice incident response scenarios.

The UCA already has a partnership with the Cybersecurity Innovation Hub as part of the CyberJet.ua project—an initiative of the Ukrainian Cybersecurity Cluster, which is a member of the UCA. The project involves the use of new technologies to train operators at Ukrainian regional power distribution companies.

Overall, for Ukraine—where cybersecurity issues are directly linked to national and business security—this area opens up unique opportunities for cooperation.

Nazar Lypovyi, Business Development Manager at APPAU – “During a visit to the Cybersecurity Innovation Hub and the CyberRangeCZ cyber range in Brno, we were introduced to modern approaches to ensuring the cyber resilience of enterprises and critical infrastructure. Particular attention was paid to the practical use of cyber ranges for simulating attacks, testing defense systems, and training specialists to respond to cyber incidents. The experience gained confirmed the significant potential and opportunity for developing cooperation between Ukrainian and Czech partners in the field of cybersecurity, particularly in training operators for enterprises and critical infrastructure to address new cyber threats.”

The first results for the Ukrainian side

The main conclusion of the mission is that Ukrainian SMEs today gain access not just to individual European projects, but to the entire infrastructure of the digital transformation of the European Union.

During the meetings, the Ukrainian delegation presented their first business cases of Ukrainian SMEs, which we prepared on the eve of the mission and among which:

• industrial AI to improve quality control systems;
• AI Copilot for engineering companies;
• digital twins of production processes of food production;
• predictive service systems;
• automation of production of composite materials;
• AI-analysis of production data;
• Metal additive production for energy.

This demonstration is important – Czech partners saw in these cases not theoretical requests, but specific projects that can be implemented through the mechanisms of EDIH and AI-matters. It is also important that these cases were done in cooperation with SMEs literally a few days before the visit – it shows the collective abilities of our clusters, trust with SMEs, as well as the experience of previous experience (APPAU).

In fact, we are talking about the formation of the first portfolio of Ukrainian companies that can go the way:

Edih Kyiv Hitech (Roles – preparation of business cases and SMEs themselves, facilitation of dialogue) → Czech EDIH → TEF/test infrastructure → Pilot → Solution scaling.

This model is laid down in the new architecture of the European network EDH, where each hub is not an isolated structure, but a point of entry into the entire network of European competencies.

Separately in the results of the visit it is worth noting the initiative of the Sumy Cluster of Energy Engineering on cooperation with the Czech cosortium Triumph Alliance, which already provides services to Ukrainian regions and communities in the modernization of energy infrastructure.

Oleksandr Yurchak, CEO of UCA: “This latest visit to the Czech EDIHs has been our most successful yet—ideas and areas of cooperation have significantly improved on both sides over the past three years. In particular, we see significant potential in future projects in industrial AI, digital twins, cybersecurity, and additive manufacturing. Most importantly, we had specific requests from our SMEs and have begun a concrete process of ‘matching’ our business cases with Czech service providers. A big thank you to our Czech partners at CzechInno for this initiative! And the agreement signed between the Czech energy consortium and the Sumy Machine-Building Cluster is the icing on the cake.)”

Next steps

One of the most practical results of the mission was to confirm the readiness of Czech partners to work with Ukrainian companies in the near future. To do this, UCA will complete the selection and profiling of the first 20 business cases that will be submitted for consideration by the Czech network EDIH. For this

1. We invite UCA industrial clusters to pre-select the most advanced SMEs
2. The latter must fill out a form with description of your business case Until June 27.
3. They will then be contacted by specialists Edih Kyiv Hitech, The task of which is to profile the received business cases. 

As a result, UCA will formulate a final list of business cases and communicate them to the Czech side. 

EDIH Kyiv HiTech will continue to actively integrate European services and access to European infrastructure, including opportunities for cooperation from other countries. For more detailed information and cooperation – contact info@edih-kyivhitech.com.

On behalf of the Ukrainian delegation, the UCA Executive Directorate sincerely thanks the Czech partners – Czechinno, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Ukraine for the opportunities to implement this mission.