Science and innovation in Ukraine: approaches to policy making in times of war

Abstract

The full-scale war started by Russia in Ukraine has caused many challenges for economic development, being the latter hardly imaginable without the contribution of research and innovation. Rebuilding R&I becomes another challenge for Ukrainian policymakers. Thus, the purpose of the paper is to analyze the R&I policy of Ukraine during the war caused by Russia and to develop policy recommendations for the postwar recovery. To achieve it, we used several methods, in particular expert opinion generalization, relevant scientific and policy literature analysis, and statistical analysis. The paper considers three approaches to innovation policy-making at crisis time: produce; procure; repurpose. Currently, Ukraine uses mainly the second one, by buying and receiving modern armament and equipment. Meanwhile, there were some innovative developments in Ukraine, which are not produced in sufficient quantities. After the war, Ukraine will no longer be able to buy armament due to fiscal constraints. Thus, in the short-run period, the government should reorient efforts toward repurposing current developments. However, such an approach is not sustainable in the long-run period, when the development of a broader S&T base is required to create a solid base for further repurposing in emergency cases. The war has caused massive damage to Ukrainian R&I potential, which by now is not fully measured and quantified. There are two types of damage: physical loss of research and innovation infrastructure (e.g. research facilities, and high-tech enterprises) and «brain drain», both of which should be the focus for R&I policymakers. Therefore, a set of policy measures is proposed to address the war-led challenges in R&I.