*Professionals4Ukraine is an initiative that brings together Ukrainian and foreign professionals working in the industrial, medical, and high-tech sectors interested in supporting Ukraine’s Resilience and Recovery projects implemented by the Ukrainian Cluster Alliance (UCA). The program was formed to help Ukraine and jointly address the wartime challenges of Ukrainian clusters and our foreign partners.

During the year of the Professionals4Ukraine* initiative, only four ambassadors out of 27 visited Ukraine. Indeed, traveling to Ukraine is long, complicated, and only sometimes safe: air alarms, missile danger, and war, in general, do not inspire foreigners to plan visits to us. However, some are ready to support and visit Ukraine despite everything. Among our ambassadors, those who risked crossing the road from safe Europe, there is a record holder – a person who visited our country for the fifth time in less than a year, and all these trips happened during the war.
Meet Mike Richardson—The German OptecBB cluster project manager, who realized that after February 24, 2022, he could not just be an observer away from Ukrainians and decided to use all his experience and capabilities to support Ukraine in the most challenging times.
Mike’s first visit took place in December 2022 in Mykolaiv. Risking his safety and peace, he gave volunteers a vital PCR test. And now the man is visiting Ukraine for the fifth time and is devoting August 2023 to a business mission to 4 cities of the country, where clusters of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences will meet him. This unique story of unity and support can be an example for other foreign ambassadors. By seeing how our clusters live and work from the inside, you can better understand our challenges and needs and find better support mechanisms jointly.

Mike Richardson and the key points of his business mission to Ukraine

Mike’s August trip was the longest compared to the previous ones, with the business mission lasting from August 9 to 27 and including visits to 4 cities, 5 UCA clusters, and 27 organizations! The mission’s primary objectives were to establish business relationships and explore opportunities for cooperation in quantum technologies, space programs, and related initiatives in the medical and scientific fields. Mike had been working on launching a photonics cluster in Ukraine for almost seven months. Eventually, during this visit, a memorandum on creating the OptecUA cluster was signed in Kyiv. Oleksandr Bondarenko, associate professor of the Faculty of Electronic Engineering at Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, became the head of the cluster. In Kyiv, Mike also spoke at the #nano2023 conference and a session on EU programs and EEN instruments to support science and innovation.

The second city of #UkraineMission5 was the city of Rivne, where the Rivne interregional medical cluster hosted Mike. Mike brought here innovative biotechnological tests aimed at detecting sepsis. Also, in Rivne, Mike visited the rehabilitation center for spinal injuries, after which he called on his LinkedIn to help construct a new center building and arrange houses to meet the needs of people with disabilities. Instructors “Rivne-Takmed”—the principal founders of the Rivne medical cluster invited Mike to study according to TCCC protocols.

Although Mike had experience as a rescuer and first responder, much of what he learned at the training was new, especially the practical application of it. Despite the 30-degree heat, the group worked from morning to 7 p.m. Indeed, the experience that Ukrainians have in full-scale war can bring changes to global protocols for teaching tactics and be useful for other armies and civilian communities in other countries. Skills that every Ukrainian will have to learn because of the war and its aftermath.

SAYS TETYANA VORONTSOVA, HEAD OF THE RIVNE INTERREGIONAL MEDICAL CLUSTER. OVER THE PAST 9 YEARS, TETIANA AND HER TEAM IN RIVNE HAVE TRAINED MORE THAN 35,000 PEOPLE (5,000 OF THEM CIVILIANS) IN THE TCCC AND MARCH ALGORITHM.

This visit brought Mike closer to the Rivne cluster leadership and allowed him to understand in greater detail why tactical medicine and rehabilitation dominate the cluster’s agenda.

However, it is also important for the civilian population, as this knowledge can save lives during natural disasters, road accidents, and other hazards.

MIKE RICHARDSON

Dnipro, a city only 200 km from the war zone and feeling the breath of war much more strongly, took over the baton. As in Rivne, Mike delivered a high-tech test for sepsis to the Dnipro military hospital and also held meetings with the emergency services, the forensic laboratory, and the Dnipro Medical Cluster (DMC), where discussions were held on the topics of security and defense, digital medicine and science, modernization industry, as well as optics, photonics, and nanotechnology.

Clusters, especially in the front-line areas, lack such support from foreign partners, live meetings, and exchanges. That is why Mike’s visit became a really significant event for many Dnipro men and women, colleagues at the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. Mike knows how to inspire, and, in general, such exchanges are very stimulating and empowering for each cluster coordinator and community member. In memory and as a sign of gratitude, Mike was officially accepted into the Dnipro cluster movement and awarded an award from the Dnipro medical cluster.

I also want to thank one of the most energetic and fun clusters I have ever had the pleasure of working with Dnipro Medical Cluster. They connect deep technology and health care in order to drive quality of life improvements for all Ukrainians. Anna Kyrychenko is the driving force of this cluster. She is unstoppable, from advanced healthcare, forensics her ability to connect seemingly disparate clusters of knowledge in order to drive a greater effort is remarkable. She’s also the founder of one of the most heartwarming special needs medical facilities I’ve ever ever had the pleasure of visiting.

FROM MIKE’S LINKEDIN

The final location of Mike Richardson’s summer mission was Lviv, where he held a series of meetings with representatives of the Lviv Tech Cluster and the Lviv Medical Business Cluster. Mike gave a presentation on the development of deep tech in Ukraine and visited the Department of Theoretical Physics at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, which has been graduating bachelor’s in quantum computers and quantum programming for three years and is one of the world’s centers of competence in this field, as well as the Department of Experimental Physics and Physics of Metals at the Faculty of Physics of the same university. He also visited Lviv Polytechnic National University, where meetings were held at the Tech StartUp School and the Department of Electronic Engineering. Meetings at Lviv City Hall were dedicated to the prospects for growth and cooperation at the level of regional innovation ecosystems in Germany and Ukraine.

Mike also met with representatives of the Lviv Medical Cluster and the Unbroken National Rehabilitation Center in Lviv. They exchanged ideas on initiatives and projects to accelerate the rehabilitation of wounded in Lviv, including through the involvement of high-tech medtech startups and specialists from Germany and other countries.

This multifaceted visit emphasized the desire for technology, innovation, and deep technological development in Lviv, and most importantly, and as surprising as it may sound, it was Mike who managed to significantly unite and consolidate the city’s somewhat fragmented cluster ecosystems.

We have found a lot of mutually beneficial goals for all parties, so we have drawn up a roadmap for their implementation and establishing connections with colleagues from the European Union and other countries. For example, Mike’s assistance in organizing procurement and spare parts from Taiwanese manufacturers and helping to create ecosystems for the development of medtech and deep-tech startups could be very promising.

OLEKSA VOZNYAK, A MEMBER OF THE LVIV CITY COUNCIL AND ONE OF THE BEST FACILITATORS OF TECHNOLOGICAL ECOSYSTEMS IN THE REGION.

Mission results

The Professionals4Ukraine initiative is not only about the classic exchange of experience, networking, and development of business relationships but perhaps more – about demonstrating professional solidarity, starting a long-term cluster collaboration, and selflessly helping Ukrainians during the war. Mike’s mission demonstrates these values in a bright, powerful, and visual way. At the same time, Mike’s mission shows purely professional things for clusters that should be emphasized separately.

1. Thanks to Mike, we have reached a new level of development and understanding of our own technology and cluster ecosystems, and this is especially true for the photonics and dual-use technology sectors. In fact, each visit of Mike was an incentive to gather ecosystem participants in Kyiv and Lviv and encouraged us to go much deeper into assessing our own state, consolidation opportunities, and starting this movement. Today, this community is beginning to take on the real contours of a cluster organization.
2. Many Ukrainian clusters have seen and experienced for the first time the spirit and skills of a professional cluster coordinator formed according to Western standards. The high intensity of the meetings, the openness, friendliness, and positive energy that Mike exudes, as well as his excellent communication skills, all significantly enhance the classic networking and matchmaking techniques that are now the focus of discussions and training at UCA for our young clusters. As a result, surprisingly, the German cluster manager brought many important contacts to Ukrainians in Ukrainian cities.
3. Such visits help the Ukrainian clusters themselves to consolidate better. Mike’s visit to the four cities turned into a vibrant flash mob, where each cluster took turns sharing their main impressions and results of the exchanges on UCA’s social media. At the same time, the cluster community learned things about their colleagues that we rarely communicate in the ordinary course of our work. For example, many of us have become familiar with the issue of medical clusters and their agendas.

The prospects for international cooperation were practically one of the main topics of every meeting, and ambassadors like Mike Richardson played a crucial role. Thanks to Mike, our photonics cluster community is already included as a co-organizer in the program of the international conference on quantum technologies in Warsaw in March 2024. Exchanges on access to defense technology funds such as EDF and ENDR are ongoing. After a visit to Taiwan in June, UCA delegated Mike the role of Ukrainian ambassador of our industrial hi-tech, and now these exchanges are starting in several areas. Discussions on innovative development of medical clusters have also been significantly intensified.
Mike’s August mission indicates the UCA’s role in coordinating and organizing such visits to Ukraine. Thanks to the alliance, our ambassadors can count on a warm welcome, coordination, and good organization of business visits in each of the many regions of Ukraine.

Ukrainian clusters are energetic generators of solutions. You combine the best of people with technical discipline and indomitable spirit.

THIS IS HOW MIKE RICHARDSON HIMSELF ASSESSES THE RECEPTION OF OUR CLUSTERS IN AUGUST

This mission of Mike Richardson is a vivid example of the impact and opportunities for cooperation of our Professionals4Ukraine ambassadors. Many foreign partners are trying to help Ukrainian clusters and their members, but the mechanisms of this assistance need to be evident due to numerous limitations. We saw this clearly in 2022. So, what Mike demonstrated in 2023—super-intensive, “field” involvement in interaction at the level of individual clusters and proactivity in creating new cluster initiatives—is a super valuable experience for us. And it is already working for results.

OLEKSANDR YURCHAK, CEO OF UCA.

The UCA Executive Board, Kyiv, Lviv, Rivne, and Dnipro clusters sincerely thank Mike Richardson, the leadership of the German OpetcBB cluster, for this assistance to our clusters.
We invite our other Professionals4Ukraine ambassadors to visit Ukraine and get to know our cluster communities and businesses better, just like Mike Richardson did. And UCA is also open to new program participants. You can join the community of ambassadors by filling out the form or emailing us at info@clusters.org.ua.

The UCA helps coordinate, organizes networking between ambassadors, and engages them in Resilience and Recovery projects.

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• Nominees for the Professionals4Ukraine Awards in 2022
• Mention of the new program ambassadors in the report of the Lviv Conference, “Cluster Cooperation in Sustainable Regional Development.”
• Formulation of a benchmark for business missions by our ambassadors (report on Prague from April 2023)