Cluster Collaboration in the Sustainable Regional Development: report of the conference in Lviv
The conference on sustainable development in Lviv from June 5 to 7 gathered more than 100 people from Ukraine, Poland, Germany, and Greece. The conference’s main goal was to define priorities in interregional cooperation and future restoration between clusters and regional communities of Ukraine, Poland, and other countries. Equally important were the exchanges between power structures, clusters, communities, and scientists regarding areas of possible cooperation. This report summarizes the conference.
Tree days of the conference—overview of key events
On June 5, the conference participants gathered in Horodok, Lviv region. 2 buses were moving towards each other – one from Kraków, the other from Lviv, and despite the unpredictability of the border crossing time, they met almost on schedule. 35 foreign participants (Poland, Germany, Greece) and 30 Ukrainian business, government, and cluster community representatives came to Horodok. The Zahid Resurs complex is Ukraine’s first unique logistics complex that has been operating since 2010. It covers an area of 40 hectares and, in fact, construction of a new industrial park is planned here. In addition to the long-standing office, warehouse premises, and customs points, there are several processing enterprises on the territory, and large areas are set aside for fruit plantations and the planting of ornamental plants. Nearby are 2 airports, highways, and railways, and it is only 70 km from the Polish border. Thus, the complex is in a very favorable position for the development of EU-oriented industrial production.
Henry Sterenberg, founder of EoT Global Inc. (USA) and president of WTC Kyiv, told about large-scale plans for deploying 10+ different areas, the production of which is planned to be grouped into clusters. The event in the Horodka industrial park included a tour of the territory, a presentation of the park, and informal communication. The hosts welcomed the guests wonderfully, and the park itself made a strong positive impression on all participants.
On June 6, exchanges continued in the format of a conference on the territory of Lviv Polytechnic. Participants presented existing initiatives and opportunities in the fields of construction and composite materials, sustainable infrastructure, Industry 4.0, interregional cooperation, development of innovation ecosystems, etc. Jerzy Kopec, a representative of the Województwo małopolskie, called on the participants of the conference to intensify Polish-Ukrainian cooperation and assured that the leadership of the Województwo will make every effort to help Ukraine rebuild the country. The “Club of Mayors” in the person of Yulia Chufistova and strategic partner Henry Sterenberg, provided comprehensive information about the possibilities of this community of mayors and also presented their vision of the future Restoration of Ukraine.
The presentation of Anatoly Dolynny, the head of the Smart.City RC from the UCA presented the projects and development programs of the UCA in this market segment. The speech of Yuriy Shchyrin from the Industrial Marketing Agency complemented the presentation of Andrzej Chulak (CEO of the composite materials cluster from Poland). Both presentations provided an opportunity to take a new look at the prospects of production in Ukraine, considering the needs of the construction industry and others.
The speech of the head of the eDIH Hub4Industry platform, Daniel Kesler from Kraków, was very interesting. Numerous services for SMEs in the field of Industry 4.0 are already deployed here. They are significantly expanded through operational labs, testbeds, and test benches from leading providers included in the Hub4Industry consortium.
Exchanges, in the format of three round tables after lunch, turned out to be rich and comprehensive and really demonstrated to the participants of the event what clusters and their possibilities are. One of these round tables was dedicated to developing the Photonics cluster initiative. Scientists and entrepreneurs of Kyiv and Lviv ecosystems in this sector gathered for the first time to exchange views on the development of this industry. They were accompanied online by Mike Richardson from the German OptecBB cluster, the main initiator of creating a corresponding cluster initiative in Ukraine.
Speeches and discussions on June 7 remained at the same high professional level. Florian Andrews, a German consultant from Gruner Hering agency, provided new insights and frameworks of “super clusters” for sustainable development.
Andriy Hnap, the co-founder of Waste Ukraine Analytics, mentioned public information in open data format and how public registers and various services based on them can help accelerate Ukraine’s transition to a circular and low-carbon economy.
Irena Lobotska from the Polish cluster of Sustainable Infrastructure presented the story of how her cluster converted several categories of stakeholders into supporters of the development of passive buildings. The result is that dozens of such buildings exist today in Kraków and the regions. Awareness of SMEs, participants in clusters and broader categories is the key to penetrating new technologies or approaches. And unlike Ukrainian clusters, which are just starting massive campaigns to promote innovations in their markets, German and Polish clusters hold dozens of innovation days a year.
Sotiris Bouzeas from Greece presented his super-cluster TIASI and, answering the discussion questions about the role of clusters in sustainable regional development, clearly stated— ”it’s about the generation and implementation of the right projects.” This is exectly what UСA focuses on, and the Burshtyn+ program was the logical demonstration of this approach as the first major program of transformation of mono-profile territory from UСA.
Tverdyslav Filatov from the ASTAR agency presented this program and emphasized the advantages of inter-cluster cooperation (three UСA clusters are already involved in the program) and numerous aspects of sustainable development.
The day ended with a visit to the Lviv Startup School. This is a project of the Lviv Polytechnic, and with the support of numerous stakeholders, it has been going on for over five years. Over the past two years, significant progress has been made here. A new biotechnology laboratory has been opened, new incubation and pre-acceleration programs have been launched, the involvement of Polytechnic students in innovative developments has increased significantly, and many new projects are supported by grant funding. The key role in this development belongs to the project leader Nazar Podolchak. Unfortunately, he was not in Lviv then, but his team coped with all the tasks of supporting the event “perfectly”.
Video recordings of the event are available on YouTube: June 6 and June 7 (Ukr).
The main results of the conference
The conference became an important next stage in developing the Ukrainian Cluster Alliance and our cooperation with partners.
For the first time, we demonstrated the capabilities of the UCA in cooperation with foreign partners in holding international conferences in Ukraine. Almost 40 foreign guests, four clusters from three countries (Poland, Germany, and Greece), where the Polish delegation strongly stood out – all this is a good marker for the future of holding similar events in Ukraine. And their importance is obvious in connection with numerous restrictions on the departure of Ukrainian men abroad. And in Lviv, it immediately affected what to do next.
The conference was the first large-scale event of the UCA, uniting all participants in the sustainable development of the regions of Ukraine. And although the presence of communities, mayors, and regional administrations, including the Lviv region, was clearly below expectations, this did not become an obstacle for UCA to develop its sustainable development agenda with those regions that demonstrate readiness. Establishing close relations and cooperation with the Województwo małopolskie, the Sustainable Infrastructure cluster from Poland, and the German agency Gruner Hering should be considered an unequivocal success.
As part of the conference, the first agenda for the cooperation of Ukrainian, Polish, and German partners in three key directions were developed:
1. Cooperation in future projects of the Restoration of Ukraine.
2. Start of strategic cluster cooperation by Industries and Segments, including:
— Inter-regional cooperation between Ukraine and Poland (including Interreg NEXT programs).
— Launching work of the “Ukraine – Poland” joint committee in the field of Smart.Industry.
3. Development of cooperation between participants of innovative ecosystems.
Organization of exchange and support communication tools in the online environment.
In all these areas, the first systemic developments are fixed up, including the formulation of the context and challenges, a list of key actors and contact people from clusters and partners, as well as current proposals and projects under consideration. Regarding point 3, with Slovak partners’ help, UCA launched the online channel ”Cluster Cooperation in sustainable regional development“. Any expert from Ukraine, the EU, or other countries can join it and have access to materials, experts, and current offers.
Evaluating the dynamics and effectiveness of our cooperation with EU clusters, it is worth noting that this conference is a direct result of the Cluster meets regions conference in Košice at the end of March 2023. There, the Ukrainian and Polish clusters agreed to hold the conference in Lviv. The fact that the partners managed to organize and hold an event of this scale in just 2 months speaks of the very high potential of the clusters and our cooperation. Clusters really become drivers of development not only in their countries or regions but also in international cooperation.
Launching new cluster initiatives, which are critical for the country’s economy, is particularly important for UСA. Noticeable progress has been achieved in Lviv in 2 directions:
• The “Photonics” cluster initiative is gaining new momentum. This became possible thanks to the unification of the ecosystems of this sector from Kyiv and Lviv. The Kyiv community was represented by the leader of the initiative, Oleksandr Bondarenko from KPI. From the Lviv side, key developers and scientists from the Ivan Franko National University and the Lviv Polytechnic were presented at the round table. Oleksa Wozniak performed perfectly the role of coordinator and communicator for Lviv from the Ivan Franko National University, also a member of the Lviv City Council. The meeting participants in Lviv exchanged information, developments and developed a plan for the first steps.
• A new cluster initiative, “Advanced Materials” was created in Lviv headed by Andrii Strelchenko (Prostir 3D from Lviv CEO). Andriy only had a 2-week acquaintance with the UCA community and attended all 3 conference days. This was enough to make an important decision regarding consolidating participants in the Ukrainian composites sector and other new materials in this category.
The event also contributed to establishing relations between other UCA clusters with foreign colleagues and among themselves.
The conference was held thanks to the financial and media support of the EEN-Ukraine consortium, many thanks to colleagues, and, separately, to the consortium member of the Association of Industrial Automation of Ukraine (APPAU). Its team took on the organization’s main functions and held the conference.
Reviews of guests and participants of the conference
Guests and conference participants highly appreciate the event’s level and results.
We saw and felt with our own eyes the energy and effort that our Ukrainian colleagues invested in these projects of stability and restoration of the country. As this visit showed, involvement in the cluster environment is crucial for their implementation and provides access to the latest trends, new technologies, and best practices in our industry, comments Andrzej Chulak, head of the composite materials cluster from Poland, in his LinkedInn post.
“Everything was at a high level. We see positive energy, which inspires us a lot,” adds Irena Lobotska, head of the Polish cluster of Sustainable Infrastructure.
“Ukrainian vision and initiatives to rebuild and reform their country inspired us. We saw and felt in our experience how much energy and effort our Ukrainian colleagues put into this. Together with our Polish partners, we identified topics where composites could play an important role. Modernization of damaged residential buildings, civil infrastructure, and medical applications are among the most urgent to mention. But even facing these challenges, Ukraine strives to implement the guiding principles of sustainable development in line with EU norms. The circular economy is considered here as seriously as anywhere in Europe,” Martin Kretschmann, project manager of the German cluster of composite materials, notes in his post.
Andrii Hnap, CEO of Waste Ukraine Analytics and head of the UСA “Sustainable Industry” committee, took part in several speeches and panels and commented on his impressions like this: “It is interesting to note the different context of the discussion with colleagues from different countries. If some Ukrainian colleagues were discovering the concept of a circular economy for themselves, European colleagues were already talking about their realizations, successes, and upcoming activities. It’s nice that Polish and German colleagues highly appreciate the work of our sustainable industry committee.“
The conference fulfilled its task of high-quality international networking – in particular, I immediately found a partner for submitting a joint application for grant funding in an international project,” – Tetyana Vorontsova, head of the Rivne interregional medical cluster..
We had several days of very high-quality work at the C2C (Cluster-2-Clusters) level. The impressions are wonderful. Cluster coordinators from Germany, Poland, and Greece performed strongly, but our cluster managers also held their own. The excursion to the innovation hubs of the Lviv Polytechnic was very informative”, – Oleg Demchuk, Chairman of the UCA Board, head of the ASTAR agency from Khmelnytskyi
The UCA Executive Directorate sincerely thanks all foreign and Ukrainian partners of the event, our experts, and clusters, and participants of the event for their active participation and support in holding the conference.