Report on Events from August 26-29 in Lviv and Kyiv
The events held from August 26 to 29 as part of the ClusterINT UCA project marked a significant milestone in developing the internationalization program for Ukrainian clusters. More than ten visits to organizations in two regions, four roundtables, and two mini-conferences took place, featuring numerous exchanges and discussions. This was the first time such a large-scale exchange occurred in Ukrainian clusters between Ukraine and the EU cluster communities. This report details the exchanges and the initial results of this study tour of foreign ambassadors.
About the Professionals4Ukraine program and the ambassadors who participated in the August events
The Ukrainian Cluster Alliance initiated the Professionals4Ukraine program in June 2022 to consolidate international support for Ukrainian clusters and organize and better connect with Ukrainian cluster communities. The program identifies the status of “ambassadors” as professionals with significant achievements in assisting, coordinating actions, and planning the next joint steps by industries and countries. Currently, the program unites 34 ambassadors from 15 countries worldwide. The ClusterINT project, supported by the Renaissance Foundation, focuses on three countries — Poland, the Czech Republic, and Romania — within which three bilateral cooperation committees have been launched. The events on August 26-29 were organized for them but were open to a wide range of the foreign partner’s networks. As a result, representatives from eight countries participated in the events — Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Germany, France, Italy, and Canada.
Ambassadors of the Professionals4Ukraine Program
Events in Lviv, August 26-27
The events in Lviv were closely coordinated with the main co-organizer, the Lviv City Council. The Lviv Medical Business Cluster and the Business Support Center of the Lviv Region also provided significant support. Thanks to them and the efforts of Kyiv colleagues from the UCA, the visits began a day earlier than planned — guests from the Canadian Embassy in Ukraine arrived to meet with key players in Lviv’s medical ecosystem and representatives of the Dual-use / Miltech sectors. The guests visited the Unbroken Rehabilitation Center, a textile industry enterprise in the defence sector, and the Superhuman Prosthetics and Rehabilitation Center.
The main impressions, including those of Ukrainian participants visiting medical institutions for the first time, were our medical professionals’ immense self-sacrifice and professionalism and the strong consolidation with local authorities, society, and the international community, whose aid amounts to millions of euros. It goes without saying how crucial all this is for the thousands of veterans returning from the front.
Photo from the “Unbroken” Rehabilitation Center
Given the existing modern equipment and advanced rehabilitation methods, the delegation members’ main questions concerned the unmet needs of medical institutions. These include new types of equipment and more specialized issues such as staff training, innovations in patient care, and doctor internships. The UCA’s Resource Center of Medical Clusters will hold consultations with the EchAlliance network, which we are members, regarding potential further exchanges and cooperation. On this day, participants also met with the city council leadership to discuss consolidating efforts in cluster development and future actions.
The conference on August 27 opened with a landmark event — the Memorandum of Cooperation in Cluster Development in Lviv and the Lviv region was signed by four parties: the Ukrainian Cluster Alliance, the Lviv City Council, the Lviv Regional Military Administration, and the Business Information Support Center Network, which covers 12 regions of the country. The Lviv region has the country’s highest concentration of active clusters, and the city’s cluster development program has been in operation since 2005. Therefore, It was logical that the region became the first to consolidate key stakeholders for the cluster community’s further and more robust development.
Next, the conference featured discussions on interregional and cross-border cooperation, the launch of the Clusters4Defense initiative, and cluster development. A highly emotional moment for all participants was taking part in the traditional minute of silence at Rynok Square, which was also accompanied by a farewell ceremony for the city’s heroes who died on the front lines.
Photo from the farewell ceremony
After the conference, two more visits were to the Lviv Startup School and the Lviv IT Cluster. At the first institution, guests could familiarize themselves with the laboratories and new projects of the organization, the best achievements in innovative developments, and interact with the management. The Lviv Startup School, based at Lviv Polytechnic University, is a national leader among all universities in the number of projects and the pace of equipping laboratories with new equipment. Thanks to this, the organization has already begun performing roles in servicing SMEs, and in July 2024, it received the status of a European Digital Innovation Hub (EDIH).
The Lviv IT Cluster impressed the delegation members in many aspects — the modern building and offices, the number of personnel, the warm reception, the quality of discussions, and most of all, the cluster’s achievements revealed in their presentation. If Ukrainians describe the IT sector as a “state within a state,” one should visit the Lviv IT Cluster office to feel and see this. Meeting participants discussed cooperation opportunities with foreign clusters and within the UCA.
In the office of the Lviv IT cluster
Separate meetings were also held in Lviv with the Polish Consulate and our Polish Professionals4Ukraine ambassadors from Krakow, where specific issues related to creating a “cluster corridor” between Lviv and Krakow were discussed.
Clusters took part in the events in Lviv: Lviv IT, Lviv Medical Business Cluster, Lviv Tech Cluster (IRON), Lviv Transport and Logistics Cluster, Education and Production Cluster, Science Parks of Ukraine, Ukrainian Cluster of Dual Technologies, Rivne Interregional Medical Cluster, and Photonics Cluster.
The meetings in Lviv left a lasting impression of outstanding hospitality, excellent organization, and the charisma of old Lviv. All of this together significantly compensated for the sleepless nights — guests’ visits coincided with the most massive missile attack on Ukraine. To some extent, as noted by our foreign guests, this only strengthened their impression of Ukrainians’ motivation, resilience, and mobilization. Also, as a consequence it strengths a sense of common solidarity.
Events in Kyiv, August 28-29
Kyiv hosted a delegation of ambassadors and cluster communities from the central and eastern regions. About 200 people registered for the hybrid conferences on August 27 and 28 in Lviv and Kyiv. At the Kyiv conference, most participants were clusters, and their members were from Kyiv, Vinnytsia, Kharkiv, and Ivano-Frankivsk—together, there were 10.
The main event was a conference on building a common agenda for Ukraine’s recovery. It was opened by Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine Andriy Telyupa and Director of the Directorate of the European Commission DG Grow Jakub Boratynski. The UCA presented top programs and projects planned for international cooperation and cases of the 4 best UCA clusters — the Kharkiv IT Cluster, UAM, APPAU, and the Podillia Fashion Cluster. The most interesting discussions for participants were on the roles of clusters during the war and mechanisms of cooperation.
Key insights and conclusions from this day include:
- UСA Projects and Programs. The UСA effectively presented its new portfolio, characterized by a shift in focus to long-term programs (not just projects). It identified the most promising projects, some of which have already been partially implemented at the pilot level and/or have strong teams and are attractive to international partners. Here is a link to the e-version of the new UCA brochure that describes the latest offer.
- Panel on “Roles of Clusters During the War”. Leading Ukrainian clusters vividly demonstrated roles such as 1) leaders and community managers of SMEs, 2) those who can take on market challenges and assume responsibility for their implementation, 3) generators of new value/supply chains, and 4) innovators, especially in approaches and collaboration models. Oksana Donska (Ukranian Furniture Assocation) and Ivan Movchan (Ukrainian Industrial Cluster) exemplified and well-argued these roles.
- Panel on “Mechanisms of Cluster Development Support”. Participants noted that our clusters must use available grant programs and opportunities more actively — from Horizon Europe to local donor programs. At the same time, a very clear message was formulated regarding the need to shift the focus to medium- and long-term development programs for clusters in Ukraine, which are currently de facto absent. We hope to see their inclusion in new Facility Plan programs related to Ukraine—the UCA is fully prepared for this.
Photos of the participants
On the last day, August 29, our ambassadors were introduced to Kyiv’s innovative ecosystem and the cooperation issue between Ukrainian and foreign EDIHs. Our guests visited Unity. City, the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, and participated in the final event of the #DT4SME project dedicated to developing Digital Innovation Hubs (DIH), which was conducted by partners from KPI in EDIH Kyiv Hitech. The event was attended online by another Professionals4Ukraine ambassador, Tereza Shamanova, from the Czech Republic. In her speech, she provided valuable insights into developing the EDIH network in the Czech Republic and recommendations for creating this network in Ukraine. Teresa also proposed three events to support the Ukrainian cluster community this fall, most of which are supported by the Czech government and innovation communities.
Photos of the participants in EDIH Kyiv Hitech
Our foreign ambassadors were pleasantly surprised by how resilient our community members and the country are overall.
Key Conclusions and Initial Results
Overall, the events in Lviv and Kyiv went according to plan. The organizers tried to provide Ukraine’s guests with maximum comfort, offering a rich business program and many opportunities for new contacts in various communities in Ukraine’s two regions. So, what do we have left in the end?
- The exchanges and presentations of Ukrainian cluster programs and projects became a dress rehearsal for the UCA for the Warsaw Rebuild Ukraine conference on November 13-14. This event is the main international one supporting Ukraine in 2024. The UCA’s preparation in August demonstrated the readiness and motivation level of our clusters and the structural units of the UCA very well. It is not uniform across different structures, but this is positive — who and which projects can be relied upon is already evident. In particular, the UCA’s project portfolio will include two projects from the Ukrainian Industrial Cluster — digital metrology and creating an underground industrial park in Kharkiv. Announcements about them were made in Kyiv.
- The exchanges with ambassadors from Poland, the Czech Republic, and Romania allowed for better planning of joint events for the fall. In particular:
- Negotiations began preparing two “corridor” clusters — Krakow-Lviv and Galati-Odesa. Clusters and regional authorities from both sides (including Romania and Poland) are involved. The first business missions and exchanges are expected to take place this year.
- Separate negotiations with Polish participants are planned to jointly prepare for the November 13-14 conference in Warsaw.
- Three events are being prepared for the fall with the Czech Republic, including a business mission to Brno in October and opening a UCA contact office there.
Polish ambassadors Andrzej Chulak and Adrian Jasik together with colleagues from the Polish Consulate in Lviv, on the left Mateusz Natkowski, on the right Artur Grossman
3. At the Lviv events, we tested the possibilities of uniting the regional cluster ecosystem for the second time (the first conference took place in 2023). This time, it was significantly more successful. The first steps in implementing the tasks of the Memorandum of Key Lviv Stakeholders and the UCA included creating a special cluster support program at the regional level and developing effective tools. Partially, such cluster support vouchers are already in the arsenal of the Lviv City Council. The idea is to expand the tools with the help of the best European practices and integrate them at the regional level (the role of the Lviv Regional State Administration). Similar programs can be extended to other regions with the help of the UCA and the Business Support Centers Network.
4. The Professionals4Ukraine Week 2024 marked the official launch of the Clusters4Defense initiative from the UCA. It includes several proposals for mobilizing Ukrainian and European clusters and the beginning of much more intensive integration processes to address security challenges jointly. Its presentation took place in Lviv with Mike Richardson, our key expert and promoter in the defence sector on the international stage. By November, the UCA will continue a series of activities to roll out the initiative among European clusters and involve European institutions in supporting it.
Mike Richardson at the Clusters4Defense section in Lviv
5. Other UCA initiatives, particularly in creating a systematic program for developing clusters’ organizational capacity, were reflected in several announced project proposals, such as the Leadership Academy, the Cluster Management School, and the Project Management program. Ambassador and consultant Florian Andrews from Germany is the leading curator of this program, which was presented in Lviv—we expect its active launch this fall.
6. No less critical is the involvement of Anna Pobol from Bulgaria in the ambassador network. Thanks to her initiative on cluster certification under the EU4Digital program, three Ukrainian clusters will receive ESCA certificates in September—announcements are expected at the beginning of September. Anna’s speech at the Lviv events allowed our clusters to align themselves, and the general discussion on the need for unified cluster management standards and certification is important for ensuring parity among all clusters.
Florian Andrews (right) leads the Cluster Development section. From left – Olesya Khaletska (Lviv Cluster of Medical business) and Yulia Voitekhova (Lviv City Council).
7. The intensive four-day exchanges led to new relationships with new partners. In particular, promising prospects have been identified with the Canadian Embassy — two days spent together in Lviv allowed for considering a wide range of cooperation opportunities. Similar new contacts and relationships were established with a broad range of partners, including donors in Lviv and Kyiv.
Loїc Marin (left) and Marius Geru near the Glory Memorial in Kyiv
One of the forum’s results, which is hard to measure but extremely important, is the significantly increased motivation among all our ambassadors. Marius Geru from Romania, who visited Ukraine for the first time during the war, said:
What our media shows about Ukraine is completely different from what we see here. Your motivation, energy, and innovativeness are truly impressive. And this deeply inspires and motivates us to concrete actions.
UCA Executive Director Oleksandr Yurchak summarized the results
We planned three days of events involving at least seven ambassadors and 20 clusters offline, and in general, we fulfilled the entire program. But in reality, the program expanded in many aspects, including in time—and this improvisation, the fantastic inclusion of our partners, primarily from Lviv, and the overall motivation and inspiring atmosphere of these four days gives us every reason to speak about the launch of a new UCA initiative — the repetition of similar events every year in the format of ‘Professionals4Ukraine Week’. So now we can already talk about preparing for ‘Professionals4Ukraine Week 2025’.
The UCA Executive Directorate, on behalf of all UCA clusters, sincerely thanks all our foreign guests and ambassadors of the Professionals4Ukraine program for a week dedicated to Ukraine and for numerous exchanges, ideas, proposals, and emotions. Your solidarity with us is extremely important — it is the key to our resilience and ability to win.
The UCA thanks the International Renaissance Foundation for supporting the Professionals4Ukraine program as a separate project for the internationalization of Ukrainian clusters.
This publication was compiled with the support of the European Union and the International Renaissance Foundation within the framework «European Renaissance of Ukraine» project. Its content is the exclusive responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union and the International Renaissance Foundation.