Academ.City Startup School - an innovative ecosystem for the development of academic startups of scientific institutions of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine

Academ.City startup school became one of six winners of the competitive selection of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine's pilot project to create startup incubator-accelerator schools based on higher education and research institutions. The projects will be implemented during 2024-2026, and the winners will receive up to UAH 1.5 million to create and develop the schools.

The Innovation Center of the Kyiv Academic University actively promotes effective communication between researchers and entrepreneurs.

What does the KAU startup school offer?

For a long time, business and science in Ukraine have existed in parallel worlds. Business sought quick and predictable results, while science acted thoroughly, recognizing even negative results as part of the process.

Today, the situation is changing! The Innovation Center of the Kyiv Academic University is actively building a bridge between scientific teams and business.

• Interactive training program. Instead of a traditional format, the school works as an open platform for individual and group projects.
• Exchange of Ideas and Talents (JoinNOW). This is where those with scientific development and those with business expertise meet. Together, they can create a promising innovative product.
• BOOSTER incubation program. A series of trainings will help scientists and startups turn ideas into viable business models.
• Student and Academic Innovation Projects Support Program. Training in the areas of biotechnology, materials science, quantum materials, digital electronics, etc.
• KAU Grant Office. Helps young scientists prepare applications for international grants and find the best funding opportunities.

The Startup School takes place in 4 stages and has a number of events: a series of seminars and webinars, the open Mohyla Hackathon; Mentoring support for student startups, which takes place in two stages: Ideaton - the first part of the Mentor Student Program, which involves the development of an innovative solution based on scientific research; BOOSTER incubation program for innovative projects; Training for young scientists on preparing projects for grant competitions; Demo Day as part of the international conference CloudEARTHi of the international project SEEDplus, and many others. You can follow the current events by following the link.

1. November-December 2024
2. February-June 2025
3. September-November 2025
4. January-March 2026

The founders of the startup school based on the KAU set themselves ambitious goals: to create conditions for the development of innovative ideas, support for academic startups and their entry into the market. Under the guidance of experienced mentors, senior scientists, young scientists, and students will be able to formalize their research ideas and developments into a project; write a grant application; find business partners; and recruit new team members (management specialists, project managers).

The goal of the KAU Startup School is to create favorable conditions for the development of innovations, support for academic startups, and their entry into the market.

The founders of the startup school at the KAU set themselves ambitious goals: to create conditions for the development of innovative ideas, support for academic startups, and their entry into the market. Under the guidance of experienced mentors, senior scientists, young scientists, and students will be able to formalize their research ideas and developments into a project; write a grant application; find business partners; and recruit new team members (management specialists, project managers).

The goal of the KAU Startup School is to create favorable conditions for the development of innovations, support for academic startups, and their entry into the market.

Under the guidance of experienced mentors, scientists and students will be able to

• formalize their scientific ideas into startups,
• prepare grant applications,
• find business partners and form effective teams.

The KAU Startup School was created in cooperation with NaUKMA, which has experience in holding the BE FIRST Open Hackathon.

If you have any questions or would like to join, please contact us:

t.narizhna@kau.edu.ua (Tetiana Narizhna)

n.harashchenko@kau.edu.ua (Natalia Garashchenko)

i.kubareva@kau.edu.ua (Iryna Kubareva)

The event is being implemented as part of a pilot project of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine in cooperation with the Innovation Development Fund to create a network of startup schools - incubators - accelerators based on higher education and research institutions.