News: NATO and Ukraine strengthen their partnership through enhanced cooperation in science, technology and innovation, 25-May.-2023
On May 25-26, 2023, officials and experts from NATO and Ukraine met in Brussels to chart the way forward for their longstanding science and technology cooperation. As part of the NATO-Ukraine Joint Working Group on Scientific and Environmental Cooperation, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov and NATO Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges David van Weel launched a dialogue NATO-Ukraine high level on innovation.
The launch of this dialogue aims to broaden the existing partnership between NATO and Ukraine, exchanging views on the development of innovation ecosystems for commercial and defense needs, and sharing lessons learned from Ukraine as it continues to defend itself against Russia’s war of aggression. . “In addition to their bravery, we commend the creativity, agility and innovation embodied by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. NATO supports Ukraine, including in its innovation efforts. Where wartime hobbyists, startups and NGOs are helping to outdo Russian aggressors today, we can also see a path to a robust Ukrainian innovation ecosystem in tomorrow’s economic reconstruction,” the Secretary said. Deputy General van Weel.
“This is the biggest war since the Second World War and at the same time the most technological war in the history of mankind. Innovations play a special role in the confrontation with the enemy, who is several times superior in terms of weapons and personnel The launch of NATO “The Innovation Dialogue in Ukraine is an important step that will bring cooperation between our country and the Alliance to a new level. We are also ready to share our experience with our allies. After all, we have been using innovations in real combat operations for over a year now,” Deputy Prime Minister Fedorov said.
During these initial discussions, participants have already identified two areas where NATO can support Ukraine’s dual-use innovation ecosystem. The first is to provide experts to help assess technologies, and the second explores funding pathways that multiply the reach of Ukrainian innovation efforts to benefit Ukrainian and allied innovation ecosystems.
Established more than two decades ago, the NATO-Ukraine Joint Working Group on Scientific and Environmental Cooperation oversees cooperation between NATO and Ukraine in security-related science and technology. It met this week for the 17th time, co-chaired by NATO’s Emerging Security Challenges Division and Ukraine’s Ministries of Education and Science and Digital Transformation.
Participants took stock of the achievements made with the support of the NATO Science for Peace and Security (SPS) Program and recognized the renewed importance of science and innovation in defending against Russian invasion and for the future economic reconstruction of Ukraine. They identified advanced technologies, energy security and digital resilience as new priority areas for scientific cooperation, based on Ukraine’s current and future needs, and discussed concrete research proposals, including on detection of unmanned aircraft systems, the use of artificial intelligence for the prediction of threats to energy networks, spectrum monitoring and digital twins for energy supply monitoring and dynamic adaptation .
Since 2014, Ukraine has been the most active partner in NATO’s SPS programme. This cooperation continued in the context of Russia’s brutal war of aggression against Ukraine, with Ukrainian scientists currently carrying out more than twenty SPS-supported activities.
