On June 15-16, representatives of NUBiP of Ukraine spoke at the summit of the RIFF project "Research Infrastructures for the Future of Ukraine" in Brno, Czech Republic
Under the auspices of the EU Horizon RIFF project "Research Infrastructures for the Future of Ukraine: Roadmap for Sustained Growth and Recovery", aiming the restoration, development and integration of Ukrainian research infrastructures into the European scientific space, a Thematic Summit on Health and Food, Environment, as well as Data Infrastructure, Computing and Digital Research was held at Masaryk University (MUNI) in Brno, Czech Republic.
The summit was attended by those responsible for developing a roadmap for the integration of Ukrainian research infrastructures into the European research space from a number of higher education institutions of Ukraine, as well as representatives of leading higher education and other institutions from the EU.
Within the EU Horizon RIFF summit, representatives of NUBiP of Ukraine gave speeches and poster presentations: Professor Anton KOSHEL, Associate Professors Vyacheslav BOGDANETS, Nadiya PROKOPCHUK, and Vira KUTOVENKO. In total, more than 70 researchers from Ukraine and EU countries took part in this large-scale event. For rational use of time, the event provided for holding three clusters simultaneously.
In the cluster DIGIT - Data, Computing, and Digital Research Infrastructures, Anton KOSHEL, Professor of the Department of Geoinformatics and Aerospace Research of the Earth, delivered a report on the topic "Geospatial Technologies for Transparent Reconstruction and Sustainable Territorial Development in Ukraine". The report emphasized that geospatial technologies in the conditions of the active phase of the war and the future reconstruction of Ukraine are becoming a critical tool for transparent planning, effective allocation of resources, as well as ensuring environmental and food security. Modern platforms and tools for spatial analysis were considered, and a conceptual GIS architecture was proposed for monitoring and assessing regional development with datasets for recovery planning, functional system blocks, and mechanisms for tracking funding implementation.
In the ENV – Environment cluster, the Vice Dean of the Faculty of Land Management for Internationalization, Associate Professor of Geodesy and Cartography Department, Vyacheslav BOGDANETS, delivered a report on the topic "Integration of geospatial data, remote sensing and geospatial artificial intelligence into environmental research infrastructures". The report emphasized the relevance of integrating geospatial data with data from ground-based environmental monitoring sensors, described the main challenges and prospects for involving Ukrainian participants in EU research infrastructures, since such cooperation is mutually beneficial and opens up new prospects for processing large arrays of natural resource data.
In the ENV – Environment cluster, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Agrobiology, Associate Professor of Analytical and Bioinorganic Chemistry and Water Quality Department Nadiya PROKOPCHUK gave a poster presentation on the topic "35 years of the EU Nitrates Directive: critical analysis and implementation roadmap for Ukraine". The results of the implementation of the international EU project Erasmus+ Jean Monnet Module "EU_NITRA_UKR – Nitrate pollution prevention for health environment: European experience of the Nitrates Directive implementation for a Ukrainian circular economy" were presented, the European experience of preventing nitrate water pollution was highlighted, modern challenges for Ukraine were analyzed, and promising directions for implementing the provisions of the EU Nitrates Directive in the context of European integration and sustainable development were substantiated.
During the summit in the cluster H+F – Health and Food DomainAssociate Professor of the Department of Vegetable Crops Vira KUTOVENKO presented a report " Transformation of Ukrainian Vegetable Growing in the Conditions of Russian Aggression"; she highlighted the main changes that have occurred in the vegetable growing industry after the start of the full-scale war. The speaker analyzed the loss of production potential, the destruction of irrigation infrastructure and logistics chains, the relocation of production to the central and western regions of Ukraine, as well as technological and market adaptation processes. Particular attention was paid to the prospects for the post-war recovery of the industry, the development of modern technologies for growing, storing and processing vegetable products, as well as the importance of international scientific cooperation and support for ensuring food security and sustainable development of the agricultural sector of Ukraine.
Participation in the thematic summit became an important platform for exchanging experience with representatives of leading European research infrastructures, establishing new partnerships, and discussing opportunities for implementing joint scientific and educational projects in the fields of environmental protection, food security, and data management.
After the completion of the reports and poster presentations, tours of the scientific laboratories of Masaryk University took place, which is one of the leaders in innovative instrumental research methods in environmental and health sciences and their integration into European research infrastructures.
As a result of participation in the summit, new promising contacts were established for international scientific and grant cooperation, a draft grant application was prepared, and participation in the next rounds of the RIFF project by representatives from NUBiP of Ukraine is planned.
