UK and Ukraine hail scientists’ role in the fight for freedom
Source: gov.uk (2025-05-19)

From healthcare to energy, collaboration with UK researchers is supporting Ukraine’s defence and reconstruction, and the UK’s Plan for Change.

- From healthcare to energy, collaboration with UK researchers is supporting Ukraine’s defence and reconstruction, and the UK’s Plan for Change
- Academic, business and political leaders gather in London later today to celebrate UK-Ukrainian joint science endeavours – and look ahead to more
- Science, tech and innovation are a key pillar of UK-Ukraine 100 Year Partnership: the long-term pact to support long-term security and growth for both our countries
The critical role that Ukraine’s scientists and researchers are playing in the battle for their country’s freedom, and its hopes for a brighter future, working hand-in-hand with UK colleagues, will be celebrated at an event at the British Academy in London later today (Tuesday 20 May).

The UK is resolute in its support for Ukraine, as the country defends itself in the face of Russia’s illegal and barbaric invasion. Our backing is cemented by the landmark 100 Year Partnership, unveiled by the Prime Minister and President Zelenskyy in January, of which strong and deep science and technology ties form a key part.

Joint work by the UK and Ukraine’s researchers is not only supporting Ukraine’s freedom and future, but also unlocking benefits to the UK economy, and more besides, all of which bolsters the Plan for Change (https://www.gov.uk/missions). In one joint project, on health, the University of Warwick have worked with Kharkiv National University of Radio Electronics to train AI models to quickly and accurately triage shrapnel wounds. And work by Manchester, Aston and Aberystwyth Universities and Ukrainian experts to boost Ukraine’s electricity grid with green energy, is also being applied to help Britain adapt as we get more energy from renewables, and as energy-intensive industries like data centres grow.

Meanwhile efforts like the UK-Ukraine Techbridge (https://www.ukukrainetechbridge.org/) are helping bring innovative new technologies to bear on critical tasks like clearing landmines and unexploded bombs. The TechBridge is also focused on AI, health, cyber security, education, and agritech, and is building opportunities in both countries for trade, upskilling, and investment.

Much of this important work will be showcased at London’s historic British Academy later, at an event hosted by the UK’s Science Minister and Ukraine’s Deputy Minister for Education and Science, who will be joined by a host of academic, business and research leaders. Lord Vallance will announce an additional £100,000 for the UK-Ukraine Techbridge at the event, as well as £400,000 for trilateral efforts to harness digital technologies to improve government across the UK, Ukraine and Estonia.

UK Science Minister Lord Vallance said:

Freedom is an essential ingredient for scientific progress. Without it we are denied the ability to act on the curiosity that sparks so many breakthroughs, or to get the answers that make us think that maybe we have been wrong about the way we have thought about something in the past.

Science is also international, which means that Ukraine’s inventions and innovations are ones that the UK and the entire world ultimately benefits from, and vice versa. We only stand to gain from working with Ukraine to keep the flame of freedom alive, and it is only natural, that the joint endeavours of our researchers, are critical to those efforts.

Ukraine’s Minister for Education and Science, Oksen Lisovyi, said

For Ukraine, science is not only about development — it is also about resistance. Today, our researchers are working side by side with international partners not only to support the country in its most difficult times, but also to lay the foundations for recovery. This collaboration is a mutual investment in freedom, humanity, and the future. We are grateful to the United Kingdom for a partnership built on shared values and trust.

The UK-Ukraine partnership on science, innovation and technology has already delivered important work, starting with the:
- Researchers at Risk (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-uk-package-offers-a-lifeline-to-ukrainian-researchers-and-entrepreneurs) delivered by the British Academy,
- Council for At-Risk Academics (https://www.cara.ngo/) (CARA) and
- wider UK National Academies
Since it was launched in 2022, it has helped over 170 Ukrainian experts endangered by the war to relocate to just under 70 UK universities, and continue their work on a temporary basis – as well as funding their research with £22.5 million. The UK Government has also supported the UK-Ukraine Twinning Initiative, which has enabled Ukrainian researchers to keep making progress, despite wartime disruption, by pairing up UK and Ukrainian universities. This has provided remote access to UK facilities and equipment, and avenues for joint funding, including £5 million of Research England grant funding to support new research partnerships.

We are also harnessing the AI, data science and digital expertise of the UK, Ukraine and Estonia with a view to enhancing digital government and public services through technology and innovation under an initiative on trilateral cooperation.

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