On 8-11 October, the UCA’s Smart Industry Business Mission took place in Brno. The delegation included 12 business representatives from 5 clusters. This was the 3rd visit to Brno in the last 2 years, and the 5th in total, supported by the Czech programme for promoting Ukrainian-Czech business relations with the support of the Czech government and CzechInno. This review presents the main results of the visit.

The 3-day exchange programme was intense and included a visit to the MSV trade fair, meetings with Czech partners, a visit to the Hutira industrial enterprise and the Czech EDIH at a local technical university, the opening of the UCA office, as well as a mini-conference where 5 members of the UCA delegation made presentations of their proposals.

The UCA delegation was represented by the UCA management, as well as representatives of APPAU (Klinkmann-Ukraine, Azov-control, IT-Enterprise, Interproject and AIM Group), Ukrainian Industrial Cluster (Lifting Technologies), United Space Clusters, Zaporizhzhia IAM Cluster (Svitloprylad and Bright Media), and 1 representative from the Circular Economy, Dual Technology and Photonics clusters, a total of 12 people.

The exchanges were successful and quite constructive. Members of the Ukrainian delegation noted the excellent organisation of events on the part of the Czech side, the high level of products and solutions of the exhibitors, and the high interest in cooperation of Czech partners.

Among the main results of the visit for the UCA clusters and our participants are

1. The opening of the office of UCA and AIM Group (APPAU) in Brno is a significant milestone in our relations with our Czech partners. We have been coordinating the opening since July. Thanks to the coordinated work of AIM Group, a member of APPAU, the management of the UCA and the Brno Chamber of Commerce, the office is located in a modern technology park, can accommodate up to 4 people and looks quite stylish.
2. Agreement on the next business mission to Prague in April 2025. It will focus on Aerospace / Dual-use technologies. The Ukrainian delegation included representatives of these sectors – Yevhen Rokytskyi represented the United Space Clusters Union and Denys Sviatokum – a new cluster at UCA, the Dual-use Technologies Cluster. Together with the Czech partners, we have already reached the first agreement on the next steps, and by April, there are many tasks to prepare specific cooperation projects for our Resource Center ‘Dual-Use Technologies’.
3. The expansion and structuring of the Ukraine-Czech Republic bilateral committee is also an important result. In the final meetings in Brno, the Czech side clearly promoted the proposal to staff the committee with its experts in 7 main sectors of cooperation – Advanced Manufacturing, Smart Cities/Regions, Smart Energy, Smart Construction, Circular economy, Dual-use and Education.
4. As part of the development of the Professionals4Ukraine program and its events (such as cluster week), as well as individual Czech-Ukrainian meetings, a proposal to prepare a separate delegation of Czech partners to Ukraine in 2025 and to conduct extensive exchanges by sector of the bilateral committee has been submitted to the Czech partners. The decision is suggested to be made by the end of the year.
5. In a number of areas of cooperation, including previous developments, there have been concrete developments and proposals for partner interaction. In particular, we are talking about improving cooperation in cybersecurity, EDIHs, creating a separate analytical review of the innovation ecosystems of both countries, etc.

In general, the delegation and management of the UCA assess these results of the visit as quite positive.

Summing up the results of the 2-year visit to the Czech Republic, we can mention a number of contracts concluded within the framework of the Czech Aid4Trade program to support Ukraine’s Recovery, several joint projects submitted in pan-European programs, as well as individual B2B agreements reached between members of the UCA clusters and Czech partners. More significant is the prospect of building genuine, deeper, and larger-scale cooperation between the technology ecosystems of both countries. All the preconditions for this have already been created, and much work remains to be done.

The UCA would like to thank its Czech partners – the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and CzechInno for organizing this event.

The publication was prepared within the framework of the ClusterINT project with the support of the European Union and the International Renaissance Foundation as part of the joint initiative ‘European Renaissance of Ukraine’. The material represents the position of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the position of the European Union or the International Renaissance Foundation.