The other day, the annual conference “Photonics Days Berlin Brandenburg 2023” was held in Berlin, in which representatives of 15 countries of the world took part. This year, the Ukrainian delegation was among the participants of the event for the first time.

Ukraine was presented by the president of the Dnipro Medical Cluster, Anna Kyrychenko, the head and professor of the Department of Theoretical Physics named after I. Vakarchuk of Lviv National University named after Ivan Franko, Volodymyr Tkachuk and Khrystyna Hnatenko, as well as director of the scientific department NoviNano Lab, associate professor of the Department of Applied Physics and Nanomaterials Science of Lviv Polytechnic Yaroslav Hnilitskyi.

Ukrainians presented their achievements in the field of optical and quantum technologies, established contacts with foreign scientists and discussed further cooperation in the field of quantum computing.

“The key goal of my visit is to strengthen the role of the Cluster in innovative processes and development strategies of the Dnipropetrovsk region, to accelerate dynamic development in the security, defense and medical sectors,” Anna Kyrychenko said.

The OptecBB organization initiated and organized the visit of Ukrainian scientists to Berlin. It is an initiative of companies and scientific institutions in Berlin-Brandenburg, which aims to jointly research and use the latest optical and quantum technologies worldwide.

As the project manager of the German OptecBB cluster, Mike Richardson, after February 24, 2022, he realized that he could not just be an observer of what was happening in Ukraine, and decided to use all his experience and capabilities to support Ukraine in these difficult times.

In the past year alone, Mike has visited Ukraine five times, establishing business relationships and exploring opportunities for cooperation in the fields of quantum technology, space programs, and related initiatives in the medical and scientific fields. For almost 7 months, Mike worked on the idea of starting a photonics cluster in Ukraine, and in the end, it was during this visit to Kyiv that the memorandum on the creation of the OpTechUA cluster was signed.

This is a unique story of unity and support, which can serve as an example for other foreign ambassadors, as well as for Ukrainian organizations that plan to create a competent long-term platform for the development of international cooperation between Germany and Ukraine in various sectors.

Announcement of discussion of results

We invite everyone to discuss the results of the visit to a video meeting:

When: October 20, 2023
Time: 13:00
To join the video meeting, click the link https://meet.google.com/vxv-esdw-kmf