Maryna Horokhovatska , Vitaliy Omelyanenko , Serhii Radio , Vasylieva Nadiia , Oleksandra Pravdyva , Oleksandr Skorokhod
Research infrastructure (RI) plays an ultimate role for maintaining and developing a country’s scientific and innovation potential. RI comprises specialised facilities, equipment, and laboratories necessary for conducting highquality scientific research. Simultaneously, their functioning contributes to the emergence of new ideas, technologies, and innovations, which in its turn can lead to the creation of new products, services, and jobs. International cooperation in construction, maintenance, and modernisation of RI, as well as direct usage of RI by scientists and knowledge-intensive enterprises alike, can facilitate the exchange of knowledge, experience, and technologies. The EU’s science and innovation policy has a special place for RI and regards it as centres of knowledge and the foundation for economic competitiveness.
Researchers in academia, universities, and business need access to modern RI to be able to conduct cutting-edge research. Access to RI is especially crucial for (i) young researchers as part of their academic education and career start, and (ii) for companies that typically cannot afford to purchase their own measuring, testing, and research equipment due to lack of financial resources.
RI can be viewed as strategic assets of the state, which are important for providing research communities with resources and services to conduct research and promote innovation. Therefore, a strategic approach to the development of RI is essential for the sustainable development of science, support of skills, competences, and knowledge, as well as ensuring socio-economic development and innovation potential of scientific institutions and high-tech businesses.
The RI system at the level of a particular country plays a significant role in the context of the national innovation system, which consists of elements and interconnections principal for the production, dissemination, and use of new and economically useful knowledge. Therefore, strategic planning of RI investments, implementation of effective governance and management practices, as well as openness and inclusion of national RI in international networks are important for the academic potential of a particular country. Despite limited resources, both developing and developed countries pay particular attention to maintaining and developing their own RI networks through a widespread process of thorough inventory, mapping, and prioritization.
During various kinds of crises—natural disasters, man-made emergencies, military conflicts—RI suffers the most and requires considerable resources for recovery. In Ukraine, the task of its restoration is greatly complicated by the fact that it must be carried out in the context of the ongoing armed conflict in order to continue scientific research.
Russia's military aggression against Ukraine largely targets civilian infrastructure, including research facilities; according to a March 2023 report by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, about 35% of research facilities were damaged or destroyed. Additionally, even before the full-scale invasion, Ukraine had a number of problems in the field of research funding, availability of modern equipment, and coordination of efforts between different research institutions. Unless these problems are resolved, they will form a restrictive factor for the recovery of science after the crisis and the country's ability to rebuild “better than before”. The authors believe that the effective functioning of the existing RI system needs to be ensured in Ukraine, making the most of the opportunities for international cooperation and integration into the European Research Area (ERA) to ensure participation of science in the post-war recovery of the country.
This research paper provides recommendations for restoring and modernising Ukraine's research infrastructure system. The main issue that this paper attempts to find solution for is the fact that the outdated, damaged, and destroyed research infrastructure and inefficient organisational system of its management greatly limit the development of science and post-war recovery of Ukraine. This document presents the specifics about the functioning and typology of RI, the main issues in this field in Ukraine, and also provides suggestions for the development and operation of the RI system.
The paper comprises four sections aimed at analysing the RI system both conceptually and practically. Section 1, which draws on the EU experience, discusses the RI system key elements, including its operational and strategic management, financing, and organisation at different levels. Section 2 provides an overview of the current status of the Ukrainian RI system. It provides an analysis of its components, including their legal form, statistics, and governance, and highlights key issues. Section 3 discusses the international experience of RI recovery in the countries that have experienced crisis situations, considering regional innovation development and smart specialisation as possible approaches to the RI development strategy. Moreover, the experiences and ideas of Ukraine are analysed based on interviews and surveys. Section 4 provides recommendations for improving Ukraine's RI system to address the identified problems drawing on Ukrainian and international experience.