The Demo Day of the Acceleration Program of Academ.City took place

On December 14, 2024, an event was held at the Kyiv Academic University: “Demo Day of the Academ.City Acceleration Program” brought together scientists, educators, and business representatives who share the same value and goal - the development of innovations in Ukraine through the promotion of scientific developments for implementation in sectors and industries.

The event was opened by Oleksandra Antoniuk, Academ.City Science Park Project Manager and Deputy Director of the Ukrainian Association of Science Parks. She emphasized that the idea of creating an ecosystem to support startups is based on the experience of the Berlin technology park Adlershof and is the result of work begun in 2017. According to her, the acceleration program has become a “New Year's gift” for Ukrainian scientists and innovators who want to turn their developments into commercial products.

The Demo Day brought together people from different fields (business, science, education), but with the same culture, perception of reality, and attitude to changing the world. Here, on campus, we are trying to build an ecosystem where everyone would feel secure and do what they love and be able to fully realize themselves.

Focus on innovations with a scientific component

The program is focused on supporting startups with a scientific and technological background.

“Academ.City is a place where we create a safe environment for innovators that allows them to realize their potential,” said Natalia Garashchenko, Head of the Department of Innovation Management at KAU.

Natalia Garashchenko spoke about the prerequisites of the acceleration program - it did not appear today, it was a serious work over the past 3 years. And this work will continue in the future within one of the projects - now we also have our own startup school - this year we won the competition of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine with the project “Startup School Academ.City - an innovative ecosystem for the development of academic startups of scientific institutions of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine”.

Sustainable development of the ecosystem

Academ.City Science Park will continue to support scientific and innovative projects through various events - ideathons, hackathons, mentoring programs - and ensure their entry into the market.

Today's Demo Day is not the end of our cooperation with the participants, we invite teams to the following events to support, develop, and promote the commercialization of scientific and innovative developments. The focus of our Academia City Startup School is on scientists and their projects, which we will continue to support and help turn developments into commercial products on the market through our events.

Our KAU Innovation Center has its own subdivisions, which are the basis of the Academ.City Science Park. We are open to cooperation - to help startups and projects on their way to promotion. The UAC holds many consultations and events for scientists and innovative businesses.

The UAC's research areas range from quantum technologies and new materials to artificial intelligence and machine learning, with a focus on dual transition technologies (green and digital). We develop science and our developments are based on scientific research.

STEM education and the future of science

Kateryna Vovk (Program Director of the Academ.City Charitable Foundation) presented the Foundation and its initiatives, which primarily include support for scientific and innovative projects and startups through scholarship programs and the purchase of materials for experimental work; support for talented children, STEM education, introducing students to the exact sciences and developing the skills necessary for scientists; organizing events to popularize science and the achievements of NAS scientists. The Foundation forms sources of support for the scientific and innovative activities of young scientists, students, postgraduates and the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in general.

The first initiatives were presented within the charitable foundation:

1. STEM-education for schoolchildren within the framework of the correspondence academic school of the Kyiv Polytechnic University. Oleksandr Plyushchay, Head of the KAU Correspondence Academic School, noted the idea of the unity of research and learning, which is the basis for the world's leading universities (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, and others). This idea is similar to the way UAC is structured: students join a scientific research group as early as possible and learn through real scientific work. Thus, KAU's activities are educational, scientific, innovative, and at the same time provide lifelong learning - STEM education is the basis for this.
2. The project of the KAU Media Lab for information support of Ukrainian science, in particular the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Anastasiia Sotnyk, an employee of the laboratory, host of the “Scientific News” project, spoke about the projects of the Media Laboratory, including the project for the development of Ukraine's scientific heritage through modern digital tools, and noted openness to cooperation and partnership, as well as presented the already developed products and information resources of the Media Laboratory - Academ.Media.

The jury, which included experts from academia, business, and investment, selected the winners in three categories:

1. Best Research Project - CeraMet (Franzevich Institute for Problems of Materials Science of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine) - new approaches to materials production;
2. Best Potential for Commercialization - CRANE - Data for Good (Glushkov Institute of Cybernetics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine) - a project on using data for social needs;
3. Socially Significant Project - AIREST, an artificial intelligence-based test for rapid emotional screening.

The five startups also received certificates for further elaboration of their development roadmap from the KAU Innovation Center.

1. A method for recycling lithium iron phosphate batteries
2. LUMO
3. AIREST
4. Center for digital non-destructive testing technologies with NOSC-UA DIH
5. Flow Unlock

Discussing the future of innovation in Ukraine

As part of the Demo Day, a panel discussion “Integration of scientific and innovative solutions into the real sector of the economy: challenges and prospects” was held, moderated by Natalia Garashchenko, PhD in Economics, Head of the Department of Innovation Management at KAU.

The participants of the discussion were:

• Dmytro Kuzmenko - Ukrainian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association, Executive Director
• Kateryna Pichik - NaUKMA, Head of the Department of Marketing and Business Management
• Vira Filatova - Flow Unlock, co-founder of the startup
• Yevhen Len - Kyiv Academic University, Deputy Head of the Department of Applied Physics and Nanomaterials
• Viktor Butok - KTS-INTEK3 LLC, advisor to the director

The main topics of discussion were:

Is the potential for innovation in Ukraine realized?
What does business lack to implement scientific developments in its operations?
What infrastructure is needed to transform scientific results into innovations and bring them to implementation at enterprises? What is missing?
What kind of assistance does science expect in the process of commercializing its solutions?
Among the opinions expressed were the following: the need for systemic changes at the state level, legislative innovations (for example, the introduction of regulatory sandboxes into the legal space), the development of a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, the need for education and awareness, and infrastructure development. The conclusions on which the panelists reached a certain consensus were that it is necessary to build trust through communication between different groups of stakeholders, including at events such as the current one, and to support passionate people and organizations that have the energy and inspiration to make changes.

The Demo Day has become a vivid example of how the efforts of the scientific, educational and business communities can unite to achieve a common goal - the development of an innovative Ukraine.

The demo day featured 15 projects with a scientific component that have passed the acceleration program of Academia.City:

1. CeraMet - Ilya Morshch, Institute of Materials Science Problems named after I.M. Frantsevich of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
2. Method of recycling lithium iron phosphate batteries - Potapenko Oleksandr, Interdepartmental Department of Electrochemical Energy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
3. LUMO - Sergiy Shcherbakov, LLC “Agrodar”
4. Mega Force - Oleksii Kurguzov, FOP Kurguzov
5. Center for Digital Technologies of Non-Destructive Testing with NOSC-UA DIH - Volodymyr Nochvay, Kyiv Academic University
6. Flow Unlock - Vira Filatova, Kurdyumov Institute of Metallophysics, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
7. STOP fatigue cracks - Vira Filatova, Kurdyumov Institute of Metallophysics, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
8. Algorithm and computer program for detecting defects in regular structures - Mykola Korablyov, V.M. Glushkov Institute of Cybernetics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and E.O. Paton Institute of Electric Welding of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
9. Artificial-Intelligence-based Rapid Emotional Screening Test (AIREST) - Bohdan Haran, Kyiv Academic University
10. STEPS - Vitaliy Storozhuk, Maytek LLC
11. RateIt - Andriy Shapovalov,
12. СRANE - data for good - Ilya Tchaikovsky, V.M. Glushkov Institute of Cybernetics, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
13. ExactOptiRoute - Mykola Korablyov, Glushkov Institute of Cybernetics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
14. GuideAI virtual travel assistant - Olena Nikolayevska, Glushkov Institute of Cybernetics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
15. GrantsForScience - Olena Nikolayevska, Glushkov Institute of Cybernetics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and E.O. Paton Institute of Electric Welding of the NationalAcademy of Sciences of Ukraine

The projects were evaluated by an experienced jury:

Yevhen Len - Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Professor of the Department of Applied Physics and Nanomaterials of the Kyiv Polytechnic University, Head of the Department of the Kurdyumov Institute of Metallophysics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
Viktor Butok - Advisor to the Director of KTS-INTEK LLC
Dmytro Kuzmenko - Executive Director of the Ukrainian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (UVCA)
Lesia Sobolevska, Project Manager at the Association of Industrial Automation Enterprises of Ukraine (AIEU).