On October 11, the EU-Ukraine Partnership Summit was held in Brussels, organized by U-Nation in cooperation with The Ukrainian Review, European-Ukrainian Bridge and Metadidomi Foundation, and supported by the Regional Development Agency of the Odesa Region.
The event was held at the Ukrainian Hub across from the European Parliament and brought together more than 25 speakers from different European countries, including the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Belgium and Germany.
We gathered more than 150 participants from different European countries to discuss partnerships, and many of them have already moved on to the next stage of negotiations on the implementation of their projects with new partners. This is a great success, – said Yan Shapiro, one of the event organizers and founder of U-nation.
The main areas discussed included innovations for Ukraine’s recovery, energy support, and projects aimed at preserving the economy in times of war. Particular attention was paid to the cooperation between Ukrainian and European NGOs to implement social initiatives and rehabilitation projects.
We had an energy panel discussion where we talked about energy support, energy projects for Ukraine. We have Robert Bosch Foundation among the speakers. This foundation supports Ukraine, – commented Yan Shapiro.
One of the important events of the summit was the presentation of grant opportunities under the Horizon program from the European Commission. Michael Schaeffer, President of the European Innovation Council, also spoke. He spoke about the role of innovations in Ukraine’s recovery, so that our economy could be viable even in times of war.
The investment panel discussed opportunities for attracting investment to Ukraine. Investors and funds shared their views on investment prospects.
We also run the mission to gather people from different focus areas to support Ukraine, to build Ukrainian economy together, to find grand opportunities and innovative solutions, to promote information policy, to build Ukrainian-European at a time when we really need, more than ever, to keep the focus and attention on Ukraine among European leaders, – said Yan Shapiro.
U-Nation and The Ukrainian Review have organized similar events before. In particular, in June 2024, they held the Innovations to Rebuild Ukraine side event in Berlin. Also in 2023, three international conferences were held in Berlin, Amsterdam, and Paris.
Representatives of the Odesa region also took an active part in the development of the innovation ecosystem, in particular through the creation of the first international innovation accelerator in Odesa.
