On May 30, 2024, the international seminar “Monitoring Scientific-Technological, and Innovative Development of Ukraine” was held at the Institute for Economics and Forecasting of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, co-organized by UNECE and the Ukrainian IP Office.

The seminar was opened with welcome speeches from Anatoly Zagorodny, President of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, and Valeriy Heyets, Director of the Institute. Denis Kurbatov, Deputy Minister of Education and Science, also sent a greeting.

Approximately 100 participants attended the seminar, including representatives from the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, and the Ukrainian IP Office. Representatives from UNECE traveled to Kyiv for in-person participation.

The relevance of scientific, technical, and innovative development is increasing due to global processes and the unprecedented challenges posed by the full-scale invasion. Developing effective national policies in science and innovation and their implementation requires prompt, relevant information on various aspects of science and innovation development, especially the personnel component and the connection between science and economic growth.

Olena Orliuk, Director of the Ukrainian National Office of Intellectual Property and Innovations, reported on the role of intellectual property in innovation processes and IP office’s activities in building innovation infrastructure.

Inna Shatova, Deputy Head of the Department of Intellectual Property and Innovations of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, focused on the regulatory and legal support for developing the intellectual property sector.

Oleksandra Antoniouk, Head of the Scientific Committee of the National Council of Ukraine on Science and Technology Development, familiarized participants with the activities of the Scientific Committee and its role in evaluating scientific, technical, and innovative activities in Ukraine.

Victor Grinchenko, former Director of the Institute of Hydromechanics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, presented his perspective on the use and impact of quantitative assessment indicators on research activity effectiveness.

Experts from the UNECE, Ralf Heinrich and Oscar Fast, presented a system of key indicators for monitoring innovation activities based on a combination of data from various sources (State Statistics Service, Ministry of Education and Science, WEF, etc.).

Their colleague, Janez Šušteršič, emphasized the use of data for policy formulation and provided examples of using non-traditional data sources for monitoring scientific, technical, and innovative development, such as application data for research calls and metadata from scientific publications.

Continuing the previous topic, Vitalii Gryga and Yulia Ryzhkova from the Institute for Economics and Forecasting  (IEF) of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine discussed issues with official statistics for monitoring scientific, technological, and innovation activities, ways to use data in policy formation, and the alignment of different indicators of strategic science and innovation development.

Olena Chmyr, Head of the Academic Resources Department at State Scientific Institution "Ukrainian Institute of Scientific and Technical Expertise and Information" (UkrISTEI), talked about the potential of using the national repository of academic texts for evaluation in the scientific and technical field of Ukraine as an additional source of operational information.

Igor Yegorov, Head of the Department of Innovation Policy, Economics, and Organization of High Technologies at the Institute of Economics and Forecasting of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, focused his presentation on the methodological aspects and experience of calculating the European Innovation Scoreboard for Ukraine, as well as the prospects for its further use.

In the second part of the seminar, a panel discussion was held, moderated by Oleksandra Antoniouk (Scientific Committee of the National Council of Ukraine on Science and Technology Development, Doctor of physics and mathematics). Active participants in the discussion included Olha Kronda (IP Office Head of Department, PhD in Law), Oleg Khymenko (Head of the main department of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine), Volodymyr Khaustov (Scientific Manager of the IEF, PhD in Engineering), Andrii Kovalenko (chief researcher Institute for Demography and Life Quality Problems NASU, Corresponding Member of NASU), Olena Chmyr (Department Head of UkrISTEI, Doctor of economics), Victor Grinchenko (Academician, ex-director of Institute of Hydromechanics), and other seminar participants.

During the discussion, the need to strengthen the influence of the expert community on the development of the statistical system for monitoring scientific, technical, and innovation activities was noted, as well as the importance of implementing modern technologies in the economy and critically analyzing relevant data. Additionally, the issue of evaluating scientific activities in the context of the new methodology for the attestation of scientific institutions and higher education establishments regarding their scientific (scientific-technical) activities sparked a lively debate.

The event underscored the importance of involving scientists in addressing the current challenges of national economic recovery and development under wartime conditions, as well as the effectiveness of establishing a productive dialogue between science, the public, and state governance bodies in policy development and implementation processes.