The Professionals4Ukraine Program brings together Ukrainian and international professionals from industrial, medical, and high-tech markets, as well as representatives of clusters, business associations, agencies, and consultants. The program aims to assist the clusters of the Ukrainian Cluster Alliance in their Resilience and Recovery projects for Ukraine. This document provides the key provisions of this initiative.

Program Essence

The Professionals4Ukraine Program is a complex of initiatives and measures aimed at addressing specific issues to enhance Resilience and preparedness for the upcoming Recovery in the activities of the Ukrainian Cluster Alliance (from now on referred to as UCA).
Network participants are granted the status of “Ambassadors of Professionals4Ukraine” and propose their initiatives and responses to the problematic issues of UCA clusters.
Subsequently, these initiatives and measures are coordinated and deployed collectively.

They can cover areas such as:

• Organizing and conducting major events dedicated to Ukraine.
• Involving Ukrainian clusters and their participants in international projects.
• Providing technical or financial assistance to our clusters.
• Integrating Ukrainian participants into ongoing projects or development programs at the EU and other regional levels, and more.

Ambassadors of the program offer their assistance voluntarily, guided by their motivation to provide maximum support to Ukrainian colleagues during the war.

How the Ambassadors Network Works

The name of the “Professionals4Ukraine” program derives from Luigi de Bernardini, a participant of the American association CSIA (CEO of Autoware, Italy), who, together with CSIA management, organized systematic financial aid to the related association in Ukraine (APPAU) in April 2022. APPAU is a co-founder of UCA, and all the funds received were used to support their association’s activities, but a significantly larger amount was directed towards UCA itself. To a considerable extent, thanks to CSIA’s assistance, Ukrainian clusters were able to endure the most challenging eight months after the onset of the full-scale invasion. Since the beginning of the war, there have been quite a few similar examples of professional assistance and support within UCA.
UCA acknowledges the best ambassadors in the annual program summaries – see the results of the Awards Professionals4Ukraine for 2022.

The most notable examples of contributions by foreign professionals in 2023 are as follows:

• Tereza Shamanova, CEO of CzechInno, is developing a UCA benchmark for effective bilateral cooperation. The 1st business mission to Prague in April this year is a model for organization, execution, and initial results in B2B exchanges. The following two missions are planned for October (in Brno, focusing on Smart Industry) and December 2023 (in Prague, themed around Cybersecurity). The Czech government funds all three missions of Ukrainian clusters to the Czech Republic.
• Alex Chausovsky, along with Jose Rivera and Luigi de Bernandini, continued the active promotion of APPAU at the annual conference of the American CSIA. This association is currently the only “window” to the markets of the USA and Canada for IAM and APPAU clusters within UCA. The partners introduced a new mechanism of honorary membership, opening new opportunities for financial support.
• Mike Richardson, the project manager of the German OptecBB cluster, effectively initiated the creation of the “Photonics” cluster initiative in Ukraine. During the first half of the year, Mike visited Ukraine four times, each triggering the activation and unity of our experts in this segment and Dual-use. Mike Richardson actively contributed to establishing relations between UCA and Taiwan.
• Andrzej Czulak, the head of the composite materials cluster from Kraków, became the co-coordinator of the Lviv conference from the Polish side and organized the visit of 30 representatives of Polish businesses to Lviv. For the first time during the war, UCA, our clusters, and businesses had the opportunity to engage in extensive exchanges on various issues.
• Florian Andrews, the lead expert of the German consulting agency Gruner Hering, visited several cities in Ukraine for the first time in June and was a co-organizer and active participant in the Lviv conference. Florian contributed to developing a pro-European sustainable development agenda, demonstrating a readiness to provide the best European experience and practices to Ukrainian partners.
• Sotiris A. Bouzeas, the head of the Greek-Canadian supercluster TIASI, is creating a new agenda between Greek and Ukrainian clusters in several related segments of industrial high-tech. Sotiris visited Ukraine twice (in April and June), actively participating as a speaker at the Lviv conference.
• The leaders of the global medical network ECHAlliance, Brian O’Connor (Chairman) and Andy Bleaden (Director of Communications), joined UCA’s medical clusters to the worldwide network of this organization at the end of 2022. They organized a series of publications and webinars to support UCA’s rehabilitation program.

There are more and more examples of initiatives from professionals from different countries with UCA. As we can see from the provided examples, the most common types of assistance for UCA clusters include:

1. Organizing and conducting targeted events involving Ukrainian clusters (conferences, webinars, business visits to EU countries, etc.).
2. Integrating and affiliating Ukrainian clusters with European or global networks and/or development projects.
3. Providing direct financial support to enhance the sustainability of cluster initiatives in Ukraine.
4. Connecting with other funding sources or influential organizations that can assist (networking functions, matchmaking).
5. Providing consultation assistance to clusters and their participants.

The UCA Executive Directorate does not regulate the types of assistance. Still, it coordinates and supports them, as this assistance is often determined by the resources and capabilities of the ambassadors and the industry-specific nature. Moreover, the generation of collaboration initiatives can occur in parallel: independently of ambassadors and in response to requests from UCA clusters.
Our ambassadors’ network currently includes 27 individuals, and you can find a complete list at the provided link.

Benefits of Joining the Network: UCA Services for Ambassadors

The leadership and clusters of UCA are immensely grateful to our ambassadors, representatives of international organizations, or leaders of individual foreign firms. Your assistance is precious and necessary for clusters and our participants – small and medium-sized enterprises, universities, agencies, and other structures.

We understand and greatly appreciate the primary motivation of our ambassadors, which is selfless help to their Ukrainian colleagues in their respective fields. Meanwhile, the UCA leadership is interested in expanding the network as a strategic asset of our association. Unfortunately, Ukrainian clusters practically lack government support. At the same time, their participants’ contributions are minimal, and our SMEs need assistance due to the challenging state of Ukraine’s economy.
For ambassadors, the following list of services is offered by UCA:

• Public recognition of your contribution to UCA’s activities or individual clusters. The main tools for this are periodic success stories published on our resources and the annual Awards Professionals4Ukraine.
• Inclusion in Sustainability and Recovery projects in Ukraine. Our resource centers and committees continuously monitor government programs related to Recovery and are ready to involve our ambassadors in them. Additionally, we propose collaboration in joint Sustainability and Recovery projects prepared within UCA. This portfolio includes 52 projects totaling over 120 million euros and is constantly growing.
• Networking and matchmaking among ambassadors. Since Ukraine and our Recovery projects are a common denominator for ambassadors from different countries and industries, they can build joint initiatives or adopt experiences already in the community. UCA holds regular online meetings, which serve as networking and matchmaking tools for ambassadors.
• Access to sectors and companies that may interest you as potential partners. UCA is Ukraine’s largest and primary cluster association, allowing us to easily find a suitable partner for you – an end customer, distributor, contractor, engineering company, or integrator – depending on your needs and industry orientation. To search for a suitable cluster organization, use this link.
• Connection with government organizations and/or other development stakeholders in Ukraine. UCA has a wide partner network, can easily connect our ambassadors with government organizations or regional administrations in Ukraine, and provides necessary facilitation services.

In this way, joining the network and closely coordinating with UCA provides you with the following advantages:

• Public recognition.
• Easy access to local communities and resources.
• Swift involvement in new sustainability and future Recovery projects in Ukraine.

Membership Conditions for Joining the Network

Both male and female professionals who temporarily or permanently reside abroad, meet the target categories mentioned above, and aspire to assist Ukrainian cluster communities can join the Professionals4Ukraine Ambassadors network.
Participation in the network is done voluntarily. At the same time, this program does not prohibit network volunteers from translating specific initiatives into project grants or investment financing.
The status of “Professionals4Ukraine Ambassador” is awarded to individuals who have made a significant contribution to the development of our clusters or the entire UCA and who meet the three main criteria:

1. Sustained and substantial efforts in promoting our clusters or the entire UCA over a period of three months. This category may also include events or events involving exchanges throughout Ukraine and the engagement of relevant Ukrainian clusters.
2. Direct financial contribution or technical assistance to our projects or within events equivalent to at least 5,000 euros.
3. Assistance in entering European or other projects where our clusters become beneficiaries.

Engaging with the ambassadors’ network is carried out by filling out a form. You get a limited membership, enabling you to engage with actors from Ukraine.

The Executive Directorate and the UCA Board also welcome other forms of assistance to our clusters from international partners. For inquiries, please get in touch with us at info@clusters.org.ua.