Membership of Ukraine in Euratom Research and Training Program (2014-2018): New Prospects for National Science
On 27 June 2016, during the working visit of President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko to Brussels (Belgium), Pavlo Klimkin, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, and Carlos Moedas, European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, signed the Agreement between the Government of Ukraine and the European Atomic Energy Community on Scientific and Technical Cooperation and Associated Participation of Ukraine in Euratom Research and Training Program (2014-2018).
Signing of the Agreement envisages Ukraine to become Euratom associated member and ensures regulatory and legal framework for the participation of our state in Euratom Research and Training Program.
Euratom Program is complementary to the EU Framework Program for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020, whose associated member Ukraine became in 2015. The total funding of the Program is 1.6 billion Euro.
The associated membership of Ukraine in Euratom Program envisages financial contribution of the state to the Program budget. However, European partners give Ukraine a discount of 95 % for the entire period of its validity.
Despite the need for ratification of the Agreement by the Ukrainian Parliament, some of Ukrainian scientific institutions have the access to the whole spectrum of Euratom research and training programs and to the Joint Research Center of the European Commission and European Consortium for the Development of Fusion Energy (EUROfusion) financed within budget 2016-2017 on the same conditions as members of the associated states.
The European Commission published relevant instructions for potential partners of Ukraine on the website:
Detailed information is also available in PDF.
The European Commission stresses that the grant agreements on consortiums, in which Ukrainian institutions participate as associated members, can be signed only after completion of all internal procedures in Ukraine (first of all, ratification of the Agreement on Associated Membership in Euratom Research and Training Program by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine).
Participation of national scientific institutions in promising nuclear energy projects will contribute to implementation of EU nuclear safety standards in Ukraine and its integration into European scientific community and enhancement of international scientific and technical cooperation in general.
