Today we are getting prepared for the start of a new era in economy, where deep tech technologies will play the key roles. Among others, biotechnologies and green energy, quantum computing and artificial intelligence, nanotechnologies and innovative synthetic materials. These technologies will undoubtedly be behind the next global breakthroughs age after the computerization era and exactly these technologies will give Ukraine the chance to do the leap and overcome slow economic growth, abandon the status of a developing country, go well beyond it to become a developed one at last.
The core problem is that the science-intensive areas of economy, like no other, require very close cooperation between the representatives of scientific institutions on one side and businesses on the other. A deep-tech infrastructure needs to be created. The whole new generation of scientists-entrepreneurs must be nurtured to transform scientific discoveries and developments into breakthrough market innovations. Overcoming these problems is precisely the goal of Academ.City Science and Technology Park.
The idea to create an innovation and technology park code-named Academ.City was born during the implementation of a joint project with our colleagues from the Berlin Technology Park Adlershof. This project was aimed at examining the experience of our German partners and exploring the opportunities to create a similar science and technology park on the basis of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. As part of the project activities, Ukrainian specialists visited the Berlin Technology Park Adlershof and were familiarized in detail with its history and innovative infrastructure.
During the visit, I saw photographs of very familiar, poor, a little decayed buildings in front of the typical soviet scenery. I was amazed by the fact that this was exactly the look of the East German Academy of Sciences before the Adlershof was created in its place. Then, seeing that our German colleagues started from exactly the same initial conditions as we do now, I realized with certainty that we would also succeed. As one of our chief and founding project members, Deputy Director at Kyiv Academic University, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Olexandra Antoniouk told us afterwards. Thus, our path towards the foundation of Ukrainian Science and Technology Park Academ.City had begun.
In September 2017, representatives of Technology Park Berlin-Adlershof paid a visit to KAU for discussion on the newborn Academ.City project, the creation of a science and technology park which KAU will host. During the visit, German delegation attended the institutions of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, met with representatives of Ukrainian companies: DTEK, De Vision, representatives of the UNIT.City innovation park managing company and with the representatives of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, representatives of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and representatives of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. This visit marked the first step towards the foundation of Academ.City.
On the 17th of September 2019, the representative of Technology Park Adlershof and Academ.City project partner of KAU gave a speech at the Kyiv Investment Forum. He stressed the importance of Science and Technology Park Academ.City creation in Kyiv and shared his valuable experience with the audience.
On the 25th of October 2019, the meeting at the Presidium of NAS of Ukraine was held. The heads of institutes, located in the Akademmistechko area in Kyiv and ready to host the future Science and Technology Park, were present. During the meeting Dr. Olexandra Antoniouk, on behalf of the Innovation center KAU, presented the Academ.City project.
On the 1st of November 2019, a delegation of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), led by State Secretary Thomas Rachel, visited KAU and the Institute of Metal Physics. During the visit a discussion on the start of the Academ.City project was held. Representatives of the Kyiv City State Administration also took part in the discussion.
On the 26th of December 2019, a visit to Innovation center KAU by the delegation of the People's Republic of China took place. President of Ukrainian-Chinese Trading Association Mr. Chen Zhong Feng and Head of CHN-UA Tongrong Enterprise Management (Beijing) Co., Ltd Mr. Chen Hui were part of this delegation. During the visit, there was a discussion with our Chinese colleagues on the Academ.City project, in which they expressed their interest.
On the 26-28th of January 2020, Kyiv Academic University was visited by a delegation from the Technology Park Adlershof and Humboldt University of Berlin, comprised of Dr. Helge Neumann and Dr. Robert Kitzmann. The visit took place as part of the project titled “Scientific Feasibility Study for the Establishment of a Technology Park (Academ.City) in cooperation with Kyiv Academic University (KAU) of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU)”. It provided the basis for further cooperation on behalf of Academ.City.
On the 14th of February 2020, a meeting was held in Akademmistechko, where representatives of the institutes of National Academy of Sciences were present. The goal of this meeting was to outline the main tasks and create a plan, a roadmap of Academ.City Science and Technology Park creation. During the meeting, participants proposed first steps towards the end goal and created work groups in order to establish a concrete action plan.
On the 22nd of October 2020 a German-Ukrainian panel discussion under the name “Academ.City on the way to success: creating the future” was held. The aim of the discussion was to define the opportunities and further steps of developing Ukrainian Science and Technology Park Academ.City, The discussion took place in two parts: the first part was devoted to the overall analysis of German-Ukrainian cooperation and review of examples to inherit by the future Academ.City management team, while the second part was devoted to proposals as well as expected moves regarding the Science and Technology Park creation.
On the 8th of July 2021 “Academ Open Air” student science fair took place on the territory of the Institute of Metal Physics of NAS of Ukraine. Many students, who are interested in innovations and deep-tech developments, gained an opportunity to join student innovation society Bluebox, the part of Academ.City project. The goal of society is the creation of platform where the students, entrepreneurs and scientists could share their experience, find like-minded people to commercialize ideas and scientific developments together.
On the 19th of July 2021 the solemn ceremony of the establishment of the Association for Academic Cooperation “Academ.City” was held at Kyiv Academic University. The Memorandum was signed by the 12 institutes of NAS of Ukraine and KAU in the presence of then Acting President of the NAS of Ukraine Serhii Pirojkov. Representatives of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and of Kyiv City State Administration were also present at the ceremony.
In August 2021 Kyiv Academic University received a grant from the Ministry of Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine within the “Ukrainian regional Development Support” program. This grant gave us the possibility to create the KAU Science and Technology Center, which will be the main developer of the Academ.City Science and Technology Park project.
Today Academ.City is an innovation platform that connects leading scientists, entrepreneurs and experts to involve the scientific community and academic infrastructure into business processes; and nurtures further commercialization of innovative activity.
The Academ.City project is being brought to life by the Kyiv Academic University Science and Technology Center with the support of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, Kyiv City State Administration and Berlin Technology Park Adlershof.
We are actively forming the Park ecosystem, services for the business environment and tech developers. For tech developers, we provide the support throughout all the stages of a deep tech startup: from the recruitment of a team, incubator and accelerator programmes to grant and venture investments. Entrepreneurs, on the other hand, could access the wide range of National Academy of Sciences R&D services: from scientific and technological expertise to prototyping.
Just before the New Year 2022, the Academ.City project team approved the detailed strategy of Science and Technology Park development. We developed the roadmap of cooperation between Ukrainian scientific startups and international actors of the innovative ecosystem. The Academ.City team defined the key areas of its current activity and established the long-term goals.
Main goal of the Science and Technology Park Academ.City is the creation of innovative infrastructure for effective interaction between science and businesses, increasing the readiness of scientific developments to the highest levels for further commercialization.
Networking and consultative activities, which will help to nurture the commercial potential of technologies, developed by the NAS of Ukraine; Presentation of scientific developments of the NAS of Ukraine to the business community; Provision of expert knowledge base of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine to the business community to establish contacts between scientists and entrepreneurs and to develop solutions to effectively utilize the research infrastructure of the NAS of Ukraine; Creation of high-tech companies and innovative enterprises (startups and spin-offs); Attraction of private investments for scientific and technological activities.Establishment of the Association for Academic Cooperation on the 19th of July 2021 was a crucial step towards the success of the Academ.City Science and Technology Park project. Now the top priority of our team is to ensure effective cooperation between all the stakeholders to succeed in achieving the project’s goals.
