UCA project portfolio 2024 as clusters response to new challenges of wartime in Ukraine

The UCA project portfolio includes over 50 projects covering sectors of different  industries and ecoystems. This portfolio consists of inter-cluster collaboration projects jointly produced by Resource Centers, Committees, the Executive Directorate of UCA, or a group of clusters. According to UCA’s guidelines, joint projects must align with the interests of at least three UCA clusters, with significant outcomes for many UCA clusters. The entire portfolio is managed — recorded, organized, and with select projects executed — by the UCA Project Office. The portfolio is updated as the situation evolves and new projects or opportunities arise.

Figure 1. UCA Project Portfolio, August 2024

As outlined, the new portfolio covers six industry sectors (18 projects) and four areas of ecosystem development (21 projects), which are common to most clusters:

• • Twin Transition.

• • Internationalization.

• • Reskilling and Workforce Development.

• • Cluster Development – Policies, Standards and Training.

This breakdown reflects the current expertise within UCA, the capabilities of individual units and clusters, and our strategic response to the country’s challenges.

Long-term International Cooperation Programs

According to the UCA 2024 strategy, the main focus of joint efforts is gradually shifting toward three key initiatives:

• • Clusters4Defense – a strategic initiative focused on integrating European and Ukrainian clusters in dual-use technologies.

• • Clusters4Energy – similarly focused but in the energy sector.

• • Clusters4Reskills – centred on reskilling and upskilling of workforce.

All these new initiatives emerged in 2024 as clusters responded to new challenges. They are being developed into independent programs, with appropriate content provided by Resource Centers and Committees, and efforts are being made to find suitable cooperation mechanisms both in Ukraine and with international partners.

The first of these, Clusters4Defense outlines the challenges that clusters and their participants face in this field, the goals, objectives, directions of action, and possible cooperation mechanisms — including through the European Cluster Collaboration Platform (ECCP), as well as the benefits for international clusters.

Similarly, the other two initiatives are planned to be introduced at the Rebuild Ukraine conference in Warsaw on November 13—14.

Key Programs and Projects by Industry

Many programs and projects of UCA have been developed by Resource Centers (see Fig. 1), with the most representative and visionary ones presented below according to sectoral criteria:

Agri-food Industry/ The project for developing new agri-food processing sectors was initiated in 2022 by the U-Food Association. In 2023, the project was presented at the Clusters meet Regions forum in Košice and received a grant from GIZ-Ukraine. This project involves a comprehensive analysis of value-added chains in eight food industry sectors, with proposals for attracting investments in processing. The project also expanded the Analytical Center (jointly with the Institute of Agricultural Institute) since high-quality analytics are crucial for making informed decisions by investors. As a result, the experience and expertise gained can easily be scaled to other food processing sectors. UCA plans to expand the project into a special program to support Ukraine’s processing industries.

Smart Cities and Regions. The project «Burshchyn+» is the first comprehensive transformation program within UCA, thoroughly developed at the project level, involving interaction with communities and the participation of five local clusters. The program is aimed at transforming the single-profile area around the Burshtyn Thermal Power Plant. The program’s total cost is about 10 million euros, and it includes specific areas of action, such as projects in alternative energy, green transport, and social sector transformation. In 2023, «Burshchyn+» applied for the Interreg Europe program with Polish and German partners. In 2024, consortium participants from the communities of Khmelnytskyi and Ivano-Frankivsk regions received a grant from the Visegrád Fund and began implementing part of the «Burshchyn+» program, focusing on studying the best international practices.

Healthcare 

As part of the Clusters4Defense program, UCA is preparing a detailed list of joint projects from the Dual-Use Resource Center. Some projects, such as a comprehensive program aimed at scaling up and increasing production volumes, focus on the accelerated digitalization of defense industry enterprises. 

For instance, in Ukraine many advanced technologies are available that fully cover the entire product and manufacturing lifecycle, allowing for significant cycle time reductions while simultaneously scaling up production. These technologies include:

• • PDM/PLM — CAD/CAM/CAE and additive technologies in design and production preparation.

• • Modern automation systems, robotics, and CNC for significantly increase productivity and quality.

• • Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) and Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) for scaling, standardization, and flexible planning in highly turbulent conditions.

The project’s idea is to launch and implement a systematic, comprehensive 3-year roadmap for the digitalization of the Defense industry, supported by relevant vendors, Ukrainian developers, and integrators.

This initiative considers 10+ similar projects, including the improvement in R&D, reskilling-upskilling, international collaboration etc.

The Ukrainian delegation at the «Quantum Technologies and Defense» forum during the international event in Warsaw, March 2024.

Energy Sector 

The creation of the meta-cluster «Network of Energy Clusters» between Ukraine and Eastern European countries is a project submitted to the European Commission’s EU-Ukraine Clusters Partnership competition. It involves UCA with 5 clusters, associated partners, and clusters from Slovakia, Poland, Romania, and Spain. The results of the competition will be announced in November 2024. The idea of the meta-cluster is to develop and implement a unified roadmap for the development of autonomous, energy-independent communities based on standardized methodologies and standards, where local clusters are positioned as reliable partners and service providers for community needs. In June 2024, UCA decided to unify Ukrainian energy-related clusters into a single Resource Center of the same name. This centre includes 5 clusters and 4 associations of research and expert organizations.

Advanced Manufacturing 

The concept of Industry 5.0 factories, highly adapted to Ukrainian realities, remains the most in-demand project of APPAU, the leader of Ukrainian Industry 4.0—5.0. According to numerous experts, the Ukrainian economy will require at least 500 new-generation factories during the recovery period. However, Ukraine can no longer rely on old competitive advantages such as cheap energy, cheap labour and raw materials. The war has changed everything — therefore, it’s time to change approaches to the vision of such new processing enterprises. Similar to how Germany launched its Industry 4.0 concept in 2011 or China launched its Made in China 2025 program in 2014, Ukraine needs to develop its own vision of new-generation factories, which will not be mere copies of German or Chinese factories but will be maximally adapted to the new Ukrainian realities. APPAU is open to proposals from foreign partners regarding possible forms of cooperation.

In July 2023, 26 UCA clusters signed a Manifesto on the transition to Industry 5.0.

Ecosystem development Projects

Twin Transition of Industrial SMEs

This category has the largest number of projects (9 in Fig. 1) — historically due to the 8-year experience of implementing Industry 4.0 projects by APPAU. Most of these strategic initiatives have already been realized as small pilot projects, and within the UCA’s overall portfolio, the focus is on scaling them up or expanding them to national or international levels. Among the most interesting and ready-to-scale projects are:

• • Creation of Digital transformation Roadmaps by Industry.
    APPAU already has experience creating similar roadmaps for the railway operator «Ukrzaliznytsia» (2019), partially in the Agro-Processing sector (2020), and in 2024 began a joint project GDT Textile with the «Ukrlegprom» association with the support of UNDP. The project involves creating digital maturity diagnostic tools for SMEs.The business portal and separate elements are used to assess readiness for the green transition. Such projects, built on unified methodologies, are easy to scale to other industries. The need for this is enormous, as no industry in Ukraine today has its own digital or twin transition strategy.

• • Creation of a Network of Prototyping Centers.
    This is another strategic, though delayed, project with huge market demand. The idea of such centers is to create laboratories and testbeds with the appropriate infrastructure for conducting innovative experiments and testing prototypes of innovative products and solutions. Such centers, if used collectively, could drastically accelerate development times and significantly reduce the time and cost for hundreds of Ukrainian developers. The first such centers appear at technical universities in Kyiv, Odesa, Lviv, and Dnipro. UCA proposes a concept where such centers will be maximally standardized, brought to uniform efficiency standards, and integrated into EDIH / DIH structures with maximum use of the experience already gained in EU countries.

• • ESG Cluster Hub
    This is a digital platform for implementing effective green transition strategies by clusters and eco-industrial parks. The platform provides numerous SMEs with access to new products, available green certificates, and thereby facilitates their access to new green financing opportunities. The platform is based on Data Space and blockchain technologies. The demand for green certificates in Ukraine is rapidly growing, as this is a requirement for all EU manufacturers, and several Ukrainian exporters have already encountered this need. Please see the information about a case-study of ESG cluster Hub at Interreg Europe. 

Internationalization

International cooperation has been and remains one of the top three priorities for UCA since its inception. Over the past 2.5 years, UCA clusters have participated in dozens of international events, signed memorandums with over 20 countries, and formed numerous new consortia. Among UCA’s key projects in this area are:

• • Professionals4Ukraine – A program aimed at developing a network of ambassadors from various professional communities (not just clusters) ready to assist Ukrainian clusters and their members during the war. Essentially, this is a new mechanism for UCA cluster internationalization, which UCA ranks as the most effective. The program was created in June 2022 and now includes around 30 professionals from 17 countries worldwide. Ambassadors in the Professionals4Ukraine network support UCA in various ways, including participation in international conferences and exhibitions, invitations to join consortia in European programs, direct sponsorship, organization of business missions to EU countries, consultations, and mentorship. From February 2024 to October 2024, the program is supported by the ClusterINT project, funded by the «Renaissance» Foundation. The program requires further donor support.  See recent report from Professionals4Ukraine week 2024.

• • Harmonization of IEC/ISO Technical Standards – The aCampus project, carried out by APPAU in 2020, prepared five international Industry 4.0 standards for introduction to the Ukrainian market. A group of 12 experts translated five IEC / ISO standards over six months, produced 10 white papers and analytical reports, organized the materials on a dedicated website, and conducted a series of educational webinars, seminars, and conferences with industry stakeholders. Such projects can be easily scaled and, with government and donor support, could evolve into a separate program to prepare Ukrainian industries for integration into the EU in the area of technical regulation. The lag in this area for many sectors remains significant and directly impacts the twin transition of SMEs.

• • Organization of Business Missions and Study Tours — This is another priority project for the internationalization of Ukrainian clusters. These missions, supported by projects with GIZ-Ukraine, the Czech and Polish governments, and partners in 2022—2023, have proven to be one of the most effective methods for Ukrainian clusters. UCA also organizes business missions and study tours for foreign partners to Ukraine.

Participants of the «Sustainable Regional Development» conference, involving Polish and German clusters, Lviv, 2023.

Reskilling – Upskilling

As the workforce crisis deepens, UCA is increasingly focusing on developing its own proposals and projects. Among the top initiatives are:

• • Industry Re_Up School – A project aimed at unifying, standardizing, and scaling the best practices already accumulated by UCA clusters to other regions and industries. This includes the development of sector-specific training schools for operators and technical personnel of SMEs, where significant experience has already been gained by clusters such as Kharkiv-IT, UAM, Podil Fashion Cluster, Rivne MMC (TakMed), and the Ukrainian Maritime Cluster. There is also extensive experience in Kyiv’s DIHs and APPAU. The project involves creating unified methodologies and testing them in three new industry sectors.

• • Training Platform Online — Similar to the previous initiative, this project aims to create online platforms and utilize digital tools and technologies (such as AR/VR) in medicine and engineering.

Cluster Development

The projects presented in this program focus on improving clusters’ organisational capabilities and enhancing the level of cluster management and leadership. All projects can be broadly divided into two directions: Talent Development within Clusters and Development of Cluster Organizations. Below are brief descriptions of the six most prioritized projects:

• • Leadership Academy – This is a framework program for all UCA’s training and methodological projects aimed at preparing cluster managers. It offers periodic courses for experienced managers who need to develop leadership skills and qualities. The program aims to enhance the capacity of cluster leaders as agents of change in the context of Ukraine’s sustainable recovery and SMEs’ twin «green» and digital transition.

• • Cluster Management School — With the continuous emergence of new clusters and cluster initiatives in Ukraine, there is a pressing need for a school for cluster coordinators to operate continuously. Future plans include building training programs by national and European cluster accreditation criteria.

• • Cluster Accreditation — In collaboration with the Ministry of Economy, UCA is preparing a system for accrediting clusters according to European standards of cluster management quality and compliance with national policies (currently under development).

• • Regional Cluster Policies – This project aims to create and launch regional cluster development programs in selected pilot regions of Ukraine (with the prospect of further scaling). The idea is to involve Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) in the joint development and implementation of regional cluster programs and local administrations, municipalities, and expert communities through them.

• • Analytical Center – A network of teams of analysts and experts whose main areas of work include market analysis and value-added chains by sectors and industries, analysis of opportunities and threats for clusters when integrating into European value chains, and assessment of the effectiveness of national and regional cluster development programs.

Partnership Proposals and Opportunities

UCA invites all stakeholders supporting the cluster movement to partner in the implementation of these programs and projects.

1. For Governmental Organizations, Regional Authorities, and Local Communities:
   UCA offers support in developing regulatory frameworks, programs, and strategies related to cluster development as tools for economic, regional, and innovative development and integration into European value chains.
2. For International Donor Organizations:
   UCA provides extensive access to a database of developed projects — both completed and new project proposals. It also offers recommendations and support in selecting projects, clusters, or their participants according to donor programs’ priorities.
3. For Partners — Foreign Clusters:
   UCA offers collaboration in consortia to implement large-scale projects in Ukraine. Our clusters are also ready to join consortia for pan-European projects.

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We look forward to collaborating with international partners. Please contact us at info@clusters.org.ua to get more detailed information. To download the complete brochure about UCA project portfolio, please click here.