The University of Liverpool and Sumy State University (SumDU), Ukraine are to collaborate on a new digitalisation and digital transformation research and innovation programme.
The new research collaboration is supported by a grant of £197k from the Universities UK International’s (UUKi) UK-Ukraine R&I twinning grant scheme.
Last year the University twinned with Sumy State University to share resources, learning and ideas and activities so far have included welcoming Ukrainian students to our International Summer School, both on-campus and virtually, access to electronic library resources and supporting Sumy’s cloud-based IT needs.
This new programme aims to build stronger research links and develop longer term partnerships between the two organisations specifically in the areas of digital economics, renewable energy, digital Infrastructure and digital transformation.
The five-month project will look to achieve this through support for both visiting and remote scholarships, knowledge exchange activities and training programmes,
It will foster direct research links between the University of Liverpool’s Digital Innovation Facility (DIF), Virtual Engineering Centre (VEC), Institute of Digital Engineering and Autonomous Systems (IDEAs), Materials Innovation Facility (MIF) and Stephenson Institute for Renewable Energy (SIRE) with the Faculty of Electronics and Information Technologies, the Faculty of Technical Systems and Energy Efficient Technologies and the Institute for Business, Economics and Management at Sumy State University.
Professor Igor Potapov, from the University of Liverpool’s Department of Computer Science, is leading the project.
He said: “We are delighted to have been awarded this funding to support our collaboration with Sumy State University in the area of digitalisation and digital transformation. Our connection began last year through online discussions with the Ukrainian researchers from SumDU and now we can help by supporting joint projects, knowledge transfer and providing some equipment.
“Through this new programme we will be able to strengthen and deepen our relationship and develop specific research links in the area of digitalisation that address the research and innovation needs of both ourselves and of researchers at SumDU.
“I hope this marks the beginning of a new long-term research collaboration that continues for many years to come and will have an impact on the recovery of Ukraine.”
Digital theme twinning conference
Alongside this project, Professor Potapov is supporting Ukrainian Academics via several programmes as a part of the UK team of #ScienceForUkraine.
He recently proposed the new format of Digital Theme UK-Ukraine Research Twinning and is responsible for organising the first Research Twinning Conference that is taking place this week.
So far, the conference attracted about 300 researchers and aims to connect research groups and individuals and promote collaboration between the UK and Ukraine across mathematics, computer science and computational engineering.
It features world-leading UK-invited speakers, presentations from research foundations and support organisations, capacity talks from Ukrainian universities and about 50 short presentations and posters selected from more than 100 submissions.
This initiative was supported by the Science for Ukraine, Cormack Consultancy group via EPSRC and CGRF grants and further information can be found at its main website.
Further information:
The UK-Ukraine Twinning Initiative is an institution-to-institution collaboration model coordinated by Cormack Consultancy (CCG) and the UK-Ukraine R&I twinning grants scheme is funded by Research England. Find out how UK universities are helping to support Ukraine here.