Project information
Research Infrastructures for the Future of Ukraine - Roadmap for Sustained Growth and Recovery (RIFF)

Research and innovation (R&I) of Ukraine has seen challenging times since the break-up of the Soviet Union. Ukraine inherited about 20% of the Soviet Union’s experimental centres, including nuclear reactors, astronomical observatories and marine research vessels. However, much of this infrastructure was lost during independence, as noted by Horizon 2020 Policy Support Facility (PSF) report published in 2017. Before any major reforms to counter the situation took roots, The Russian aggression started in February 2022 – and resulted in destruction or damage of 35% of Ukraine’ research infrastructure and caused around a quarter of researchers and scientist to leave abroad. However, as Ukraine obtained the EU candidate status and started the EU negotiations in July 2024, the ambition to promote its research system and ensure its integration into the European Research Area has received a new impetus.
The RIFF project can greatly facilitate this process by offering a fresh forward-looking perspective on the Ukrainian research infrastructures; a roadmap that will be: (1) bottom-up, using an open call for proposals and a robust training, awareness raising and dissemination strategy towards potential applicants, rooted in a network of full and associated partners in Ukraine; (2) relevant to Ukrainian policy thanks to a robust consultation process involving broad range of stakeholders from government, as well as other sectors; (3) open and transparent, making benefit from peer review methodology well established in ESFRI; (4) independent thanks to involvement of several panels of internationally renowned experts, and thereby highly resistant to conflicts of interest and clientelism; (5) connected to EU/ESFRI thanks to an implementation team connected to major European infrastructure and a comprehensive strategy for enabling mobility and knowledge exchange between EU and Ukraine.