Part 1
Resilience as a term is increasingly becoming a cliché, widely used for both internal (in Ukraine) and external communications. At the same time, there are no in-depth studies on the nature of resilience in business associations or communities in Ukraine. Within the Ukrainian Cluster Alliance (UCA), we organized our first discussion and analysis on resilience on September 2025. This publication is our first attempt to understand the nature of resilience among Ukrainian clusters in order to identify tools for strengthening it.
General Context of Resilience in Business support organizations
We have been addressing the topic of resilience since 2020-ever since it was first widely discussed during COVID-19. Already then, examples of certain Ukrainian clusters entered our analytical “radar.” We noted that yes-clusters mobilized, but mostly for charitable support of medical staff, rather than producing equipment or supplies. Unlike in Europe, there was no major mobilization to close supply chain gaps. The APPAU case, “First Attempts to Enter MedTech,” clearly highlighted the shortcomings of the traditional behavior of manufacturers, market leaders, and the state there was no broad cooperation.
Instead, we saw signs of a new culture based on values of openness, trust, wide networked collaboration, charity, and effectiveness. We analyzed this on the example of the StopCovidUA volunteer community. Already then, five years ago, we named this example a marker of the future development (and resilience) of the Ukrainian cluster movement. And in March 2022, clusters united around critical industries to jointly hold the economic front.
Three years have passed. Today we clearly understand that a fast and consolidated reaction to crises challanges is possible only in mature, strong manufacturers unions. It was somewhat naïve to expect this from communities that weren’t even clusters five years ago. Now, we can state that our clusters withstood the first, most difficult years of war, and some continue to grow rapidly—while others remain in a rather passive state. The picture is uneven, but overall, across the country, we see clusters growing by region and industry. State support is increasing, and more stakeholders are joining the cluster movement. Therefore, we have the right to speak about our resilience. So let’s figure it out—what lies at the core of our resilience?
Resilience as the Nature of Clusters – Conceptualization
There are many online publications on resilience, including on cluster organizations. From them, the following conclusions can be drawn:
- Cluster network structures are inherently resilient: interdependent enterprises in value chains, close collaboration with education and science, government, and communities form an ecosystem capable of adapting quickly to crises.
- Clusters as “economic communities”: they unite SMEs, large companies, universities, and regional agencies, creating synergy for joint responses to challenges.
- Resilience of clusters manifests in several dimensions:
- Institutional – building trust, new cooperation formats, and integration into European and global networks.
- Economic – supporting production, innovation, and exports even in crisis conditions.
- Social – preserving jobs, engaging with communities, supporting people in regions.
- Security and defense – maintaining critical infrastructure resilience, ability to function during wartime, and direct contribution to strengthening the defense industry (MilTech).
- Environmental – energy efficiency, solving environmental protection issues, green transition.
With this framework in mind, let’s look at Ukrainian examples.
Ukrainian Clusters – Examples of Resilience
Institutional Resilience
The Ukrainian Cluster Alliance plays a key role in shaping national policies and strategies for cluster development, as well as regional programs. The recent Clusters4Regions project gives six regions the chance to create and implement regional cluster support programs. UCA also established structural units (Resource Centers and Committees) that develop sectoral roadmaps and already work in areas like twin transition, Industry 5.0, circular economy, medicine, and defense. Examples include:
- APPAU (Industry 4.0): 40+ policy documents (strategies and policies), leading role in twin transition roadmaps—systemic role in Industry 4.0–5.0 development.
- Circular Economy Cluster: close cooperation with the government on circular economy standards and workforce training.
- Rivne Medical Cluster: engaging regional health institutions in international projects—strengthening institutions.
- Kharkiv and Lviv IT Clusters: leading roles in regional tech ecosystems, influencing IT industry standards.
Economic Resilience
This category is central for clusters as economic entities. Examples include:
- UAM (furniture): pre-war leader in export growth (+17% annually), $300M investment from Kronospan—preserving competitiveness and growth.
- U-Food: together with the Agrarian Policy Institute, creating 10 new agro-food value chains and exporting dozens of companies.
- Interregional Union of Poultry and Feed Producers: active support for farms in eastern Ukraine.
- Heat Energy Cluster: order-sharing and cooperation between boiler plants—ensuring flexible, continuous production.
- Podillia clusters (Dnister 1362, fashion, greenhouse farms): strong examples of economic resilience, innovation, and regional community engagement.
Security and Defense
Encouragingly, new clusters have appeared in this area, mobilizing SMEs and industries for defense needs, alongside traditional clusters allocating part of their resources:
- IRON Cluster: close cooperation with Lviv City Council; rapid growth, forming a strong MilTech sector in the region.
- UIC (Ukrainian Industrial Cluster): joint product development—land robotic complex (LRC) serially delivered to the Armed Forces.
- Vinnytsia Instrument Engineering & Automation Cluster, Maritime Cluster of Ukraine: systematic creation of new products for defense.
- Kharkiv IT Cluster: formed an internal Defense group, coordinating collective work to meet Armed Forces’ needs.
- Dual-use Cluster – unites todays 30+ Kyiv’s Dual-use / MilTech SMEs, universities and startups, they have ambitious palns of the growth on both sectors.
Social Resilience
Though UCA does not specifically monitor this category, examples abound:
- Kharkiv IT Cluster: 50+ education partners, dozens of new programs—human capital preservation. Systematic support for affected communities in Kharkiv region.
- Maritime Cluster of Ukraine: large-scale humanitarian aid in Mykolaiv during the first war years.
- UAM (Furniture School): training hundreds of professionals annually—supporting employment.
- Podillia Fashion Cluster: tailoring school, green transition projects—new skills and jobs.
- Dnister 1362: systemic work with rural communities—new sectors (greenhouses), hundreds of jobs, support for artisans.
- Rivne Medical Cluster: 2 EU projects for medicine and startups—improving healthcare and creating an innovation valley.
Environmental Resilience
- Podillia Fashion Cluster: roadmap for textile waste management, implementing 3 projects.
- Circular Economy Cluster: 2 waste management projects, launching a national marketplace platform.
- Maritime Cluster of Ukraine: first business association to develop a “blue economy” roadmap and begin systematic implementation in the south.
More examples can be found in the UCA publication “Ukrainian Clusters as a New Reality – Changing Narratives.”
As we see, there are plenty of examples of resilience among Ukrainian clusters. But what lies at the core of this phenomenon? Which factors work, and which don’t? Can we transform them into tools for influence and resilience growth? This will be the subject of Part 2 of the publication.
Oleksandr Yurchak, CEO of UCA