European leaders cobble together international coalition for Ukrainian science

The European Commission has joined Italy, Germany, Poland and other EU countries to launch an international coalition aimed at raising money and know-how to put science, research and innovation at the core of Ukraine’s reconstruction and long-term development.

The coalition was announced on July 11 in Rome, at the Ukraine Recovery Conference, an annual event where policymakers and industry gather to plan how Europe can help rebuild the war-torn country. Austria, Croatia, Denmark, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United Nations Development Programme have also joined the coalition.

The coalition would help Ukraine by providing technical assistance for reconstruction, access to cutting-edge equipment, capacity development in science management and support for the implementation of research security measures. 

Since 2022, 30% of Ukraine’s research institutions have been destroyed and 20% of researchers have been displaced. Those who remained in the country are facing severe funding shortages and are working in inadequate facilities in challenging working conditions.

Yevhen Kudriavets, Ukraine’s first deputy minister of education and science, said the country is committed to continuing the implementation of standards established under the European Research Area, the EU’s single market for research, in order to reform the governance of Ukraine’s science system. “Our priority is to build forward, better,” he said. 

According to data provided by the Ukrainian government, the country would need around €1.2 billion to rebuild the research and higher education infrastructure it has lost since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. 

Of that amount, €1 billion would be needed just for restoring buildings and buying new research equipment. Another €150 million would be needed for Ukraine to set up a national system for funding 2,000 top young researchers working in science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines, who would receive financial support of about €500 per month. The government has already prepared a draft resolution to kick-start the programme. 

The government is also looking to set up PhD grants, launch tech transfer centres and a new applied research agency, build an open data repository, support Ukrainian scientific journals, and strengthen the country’s network of national contact points for EU research programmes. 

It’s all political

The recovery conference takes place every year in a new EU capital. Last year it was hosted in Berlin, while Warsaw is slated to host in 2026, but it was the Italian government that came up with the idea of having a dedicated science panel in Rome. It was the occasion for a broad coalition of European countries, and UNESCO, to kickstart an official process that frames more clearly a conversation that started several years ago. 

Before the Italians swooped in, Germany’s six largest research organisations published an action plan outlining how they could get more involved in rebuilding Ukrainian science. The report was published last year in June and called on policymakers to work more closely on setting up bilateral cooperation between Ukraine and Germany. 

Ahead of the Rome conference this year, UNESCO also launched a similar action plan estimating it would need $18 million to roll out projects specifically aimed at strengthening research infrastructure, supporting young scientists and integrating Ukraine in European and global research ecosystems. 

Kudriavets expressed his “gratitude” to the Italian government. The coalition is “a good sign that we are looking into the future,” he said. 

Italy’s research minister, Anna Maria Bernini, said her government will be “more and more involved from now on.” Italy and Ukraine are also working on a bilateral agreement on sharing access to labs, funding and data. “All the discoveries, all the large research infrastructures, all initiatives must be shared,” Bernini said.

Germany is also planning to launch by 2027 a think tank in Kyiv that will fund research on energy and climate, said Rolf-Dieter Jungk, secretary of state in the federal research ministry. Jungk also announced two funding calls that are coming up this year, aimed at setting up a German-Ukrainian universities network with joint degree programmes and collaborative teaching modules.

Meanwhile, Andrzej Szeptycki, undersecretary of state at Poland’s science ministry, said that in addition to the new initiatives aimed at helping Ukraine, Europe should discuss further isolating Russian science. For example, there are still some countries that remain members or observers in the Dubna institute for nuclear research, north of Moscow, said Szeptycki. “This is something I would reconsider.”

A boost from Brussels

But beyond money and policy support, Ukraine is looking to align its research funding system with the rest of Europe. The government is working on the 35 policy chapters it needs to complete before it can become the EU’s 28th member state, but the Commission has already given a its efforts to close the research chapter a positive review, according to Ekaterina Zaharieva, the commissioner responsible. 

Launching the coalition in Rome is just the beginning, Zaharieva said, but it gives Europe the chance to better align and coordinate, and to support the Ukrainian system as it prepares to become fully integrated in the European Research Area. 

Zaharieva also announced that the EU is planning to allocate €60 million for dedicated research calls in Ukraine, in addition to €60 million previously routed through Horizon Europe and Euratom. “In peacetime, Ukraine will be a scientific powerhouse, as you show remarkable resilience [in wartime],” Zaharieva told Ukrainian delegates in Rome. 

Last but not least, the Commission has announced a partnership on large-scale “defence innovation” projects together with Ukraine’s ministry for digital transformation. The EU hopes to tap into Ukraine’s battle-proven know-how to boost its own defence sector. 

In Rome, the EU signed a €2.3 billion package under the Ukraine Investment Framework, which includes €1.8 billion in loan guarantees and €580 million in grants. The Commission hopes to mobilise up to €10 billion in investments in Ukraine.