Linking Ukraine to the European Research Area - Joint Funding and Capacity Building Platform for Enhanced Research and Innovation Cooperation

LUKE is an initiative of several EU Member States and countries associated to Horizon Europe aiming to establish a multilateral funding and capacity building platform focusing on Ukraine. Its key objectives are to implement a joint call and fund transnational research and innovation (R&I) projects with Ukrainian participation as well as to enhance Ukraine's R&I capacities. A modern, efficient, and transparent science and innovation system is crucial for Ukraine’s post-war recovery and economic prosperity. Sharing best practices, pooling resources, and transferring knowledge can significantly contribute to unlocking Ukraine's scientific potential, improving the framework conditions for research and innovation, and integrating the country more closely into the European Research Area (ERA).The LUKE network comprises a group of funding parties and the project consortium responsible for accompanying activities. The overall coordination and management are conducted by a call secretariat. Altogether 19 organisations from 13 countries have already confirmed their willingness to participate as funders within the network: Austria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Switzerland, Ukraine itself, as well as the EU accession candidates Georgia, Republic of Moldova, and Türkiye. Additional funding agencies have expressed interest in joining and may be included in the group of funding parties once the joint call has been finalized. The project consortium includes nine organisations, amongst them the German Aerospace Center (DLR) as coordinator, the National Research Foundation of Ukraine (including the Horizon Office and Science Council), Centre for Social Innovation (Austria), Danish Board of Technology (DBT), and University of Daugavpils (Latvia).