Three Years of War in Ukraine

February 24 marked the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion. We reflected on UCA’s journey over these three years, its key achievements, and its transformations. The main takeaways are unity, professionalization, military support, and adaptability. More details here.

UCA News

• UCA continues to focus on the defense sector. Following its January conference (see the report), UCA clusters participated in several events in February, including the Defense Tech Innovation Conference organized by Brave1, Ukraine’s state defense accelerator. Read the event report here.
• UCA invites European clusters to join the Clusters4Defense initiative. Together, we can build a medium—and long-term program for cluster collaboration and contribute to European security.
• On February 26, 2025, over 105 participants worldwide joined the TCI Network webinar featuring the Interreg Europe ACCELERATE GDT project, titled “Ukrainian Cluster Ecosystem: Steps Towards a Common Future.” The event highlighted Ukraine’s cluster ecosystem, backed by UCA’s research within the ACCELERATE GDT project.
• UCA’s first international office in Central and Eastern Europe has officially started operations in Brno, Czech Republic. Co-funded by several clusters and private companies, the office provides information services to European partners about project opportunities in Ukraine and facilitates matchmaking.

UCA Projects

Clusters4Regions has launched! This initiative, implemented by UCA at the request of Ukraine’s Ministry of Economy and supported by the UCORD project, aims to strengthen regional economic development through effective cluster policies in six pilot regions. Regional development agencies will play a crucial role in supporting and integrating clusters into broader economic strategies.

In early February, UCA leadership participated in meetings in Budapest within two major projects: Accelerate GDT (Interreg Europe) and DanubIA (Interreg Danube). Accelerate GDT is driving the development of Ukraine’s first national cluster policy, while DanubIA marks UCA’s first collaboration with four other Central and Eastern European cluster associations (from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, and Hungary).

Cluster News

February 19 – The PRECISEU project’s General Assembly gathered all European consortium members. The Rivne Interregional Medical Cluster took part, while Biocat’s Montse Daban and Maria Sejas presented key findings from the internal report and reflections on the first six months of PRECISEU.

Kharkiv IT Cluster, led by Eddi Fast, showcased Ukraine’s IT sector at TechArena, one of Scandinavia’s largest business events. After two productive days in Helsinki—where the Ukrainian delegation explored Finland’s startup ecosystem, education models, and investor network—their work continued in Stockholm.

Upcoming Events in March

March 11-12 – Industry 5.0 Conference & Matchmaking
March 18-20 – Ukrainian Delegation at AMPER 2025, Brno

March 20 – KALUSH EXPO 2025