EURATOM PROGRAMME IS IN THE SPOTLIGHT
EURATOM INFO DAY in UKRAINE 2023 was held on April 27, 2023!
The Euratom National Contact Point in Ukraine (Euratom NCP) together with the National Science Center “Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology” (NSC KIPT) held an Information Day of the Euratom Programme. The event brought together various institutions from Ukraine related to scientific research in the fields of fission and fusion, development of innovations, implementation and operation of nuclear technologies and installations. The total number of participants was 70. The largest part of the audience were representatives of education, the second most representative part of the audience were scientific research institutes, the representatives of the nuclear industry from state and private companies and the European Educational Network ENEN were also present at the event. Among the speakers of the event were representatives of the European Commission, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, and the Joint Research Center of the European Commission.
The event was opened by Oleksandr Volobuyev, the head of the Euratom NCP in Ukraine, who provided general information about the Euratom Programme, its goals and content, budget and funding directions, as well as introduced the Programme and the audience of the event welcoming all participants from the Euratom NCP and NSC KIPT.
The second speech made by Hryhoriy Mozolevych, the head of the expert group on integration into the European research area, was about the impact of military aggression in Ukraine on research and education infrastructure, plans for recovery and the goals of renewing the science and education sector, the information on Ukraine’s participation in the Horizon Europe Framework Programme was presented. It was also about assistance to Ukrainian scientists under various initiatives by the European Commission. One of such initiatives is support for creation of the Horizon Europe Program Office, which will function on the basis of the National Research Fund of Ukraine.
The next speech was devoted to the official launch of the New Work Programme 2023-2025, which took place on April 4, 2023 in Brussels. Serhiy Pugach, the coordinator of the Euratom NCP in Ukraine, made a presentation about this event, in which the main issues under consideration were briefly presented: modern and future challenges of nuclear energy, fuel safety and diversification, development of the direction of small modular reactors, matters of education, involvement of youth and qualified personnel in line with the growth of nuclear energy and the related non-energy sector and other issues.
The floor was taken then by the representative of the European Commission (EC) from Euratom, Mykola Dzyubynskyi, who spoke about the achievements of Ukraine during the last Horizon 2020 Programme. Ukraine started in 2016 and gradually enhanced the volume of cooperation. According to statistics, Ukrainian institutions have projects with a contribution from the EC of about 2 million euros in the Euratom Work Programme WP 2019-2020 Horizon 2020. According to the next Euratom Work Programme WP 2021-2022 Horizon Europe, Ukraine again has similar achievements – close to 2 million euros. Further, the “fusion” direction, involvement Ukraine in controlled fusion research and in the latest European fusion infrastructure initiatives were revealed in the presentation.
The logical continuation was the presentation of Vadym Makhlai, the head of the plasma dynamics department of the NSC IPT IFP. The presentation was about the largest project of Euratom and the Horizon Europe Programme dedicated to thermonuclear fusion – the EUROfusion project. The speaker provided information on participation of the Ukrainian research unit in the project, gave examples of experimental and theoretical works including high results obtained in 2022.
The next presentation from the European side, from the Joint Research Center of the European Commission (The Nuclear Safety and Security Directorate of the Joint Research Centre) was made by Anna Skrypnyk, a junior researcher at NSC KIPT. In 2021 Anna received a grant to conduct research in one of the JRC laboratories at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). In 2022, earlier than planned, she began its cooperation with JRC as a consequence of forced relocation after the Russian military invasion of Ukraine. The presentation was about the research conducted by the laboratory at the JRC and its analytical capabilities for research on spent nuclear fuel, radioactive waste, non-energy nuclear research for space and medicine and other areas.
The presentation of Igor Hirka, professor of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, was dedicated to educational European networks in the areas of fission and fusion, respectively ENEN and FuseNet. The presentation provided information about projects and events initiated by educational networks. Current projects aimed at scientific research and involvement of young researchers, a programme of events planned in 2023 were provided. One of the issues raised during the speech – the expected large demand for scientific and technical specialists (scientists and engineers), which is observed now and will grow in the future, taking into account the ambitious European plans for nuclear and thermonuclear energy, the achievement of the strategic goal – climate-neutral European economy by 2050. Instead, we see a reverse movement in Ukraine: reduction of funding and the number of entrants in these fields, decrease in attention to technical subjects in secondary education, but someone will have to implement Ukraine’s plans for the development of nuclear energy, engage in operation of nuclear reactors, provide scientific and technological support for nuclear sector.
Euratom projects implemented according to the partnership with co-financing scheme became the topic of the following presentation by Serhiy Pugach. Most of the research in the fields of controlled thermonuclear fusion, radioactive waste management, radiation protection and nuclear materials will take place under the scheme of CEP (Cofund European Partnership) projects. The speaker talked about the characteristic features of CEP projects, namely, 3 active CEP projects and one more project planned under the Euratom Work Programme 2023-2025.
Serhiy Pugach and Mykola Dzyubynskyi submitted calls of the new Euratom Work Programme in the following two presentations. 11 fission calls were described in the presentation by Serhiy Pugach. The information was provided about each call separately: its name, expected areas of research, the amount of the grant and the expected number of projects under the call. Mykola Dzyubynskyi told about other types of calls announced for already identified beneficiaries in his presentation .
The final presentation about NCP tools and events created and held over the past year was made by the Euratom NCP. The Information on the nearest plans for Euratom NCP trainings, support for scientists in realization of visits to partners and work on preparation proposals for the new Euratom Work Programme 2023-2025 was also provided.
As a conclusion, we see a good level of participation from Ukraine and a repetition of achievements in the last two programs WP2019-2020 and WP2021-2022 over the past 4 years. Improving the level of integration into the Programme will require further activity of experienced Euratom participants and involvment of new institutions not yet participated in the Euratom Program. Of course, this movement should be supported by state policy and funding, including the development of work on partnership projects – SER. Among the potential growth points are representatives of the university community. Only three universities are involved in Euratom projects, more precisely, all three universities are recognized as participants in one project – EUROfusion. The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine has also the potential for participation development, both among the organizations that are already integrated into the Program, and at the expense of new participants. The industrial part of the Ukrainian community of the nuclear sector actively participates in the Euratom Programme and, of course, there are opportunities for development including greater involvement of state-owned production enterprises of the nuclear sector.
The new Euratom Programme has been announced! It’s time to act and find partners to prepare joint proposals, to join Euratom projects, develop the already achieved success of the Ukrainian community in participating in the Euratom Programme!
Presentation materials of the event are available at the link:
Video record of the event:
Part 1: https://youtu.be/K-QmDjA_cBc
Part 2: https://youtu.be/IGurC6DNanQ
New calls of the Euratom Programme:
EURATOM INFO DAY in UKRAINE 2023 was supported by the UAinEuratom21 project (GA#101072693) funded by the European Commission under the Euratom Research and Training Programme (Horizon Europe).
