Ukraine Research Network@ZOiS

In November 2022, ZOiS launched the Ukraine Research Network@ZOiS, a networking and transfer project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Coordinated by Anastasiya Leukhina, it aims to better connect social science research on Ukraine and strengthen its visibility and impact. It will connect researchers from and in Ukraine to international networks by granting fellowships to Ukrainian researchers who come to Berlin as well as providing support for non-residential fellows who will stay in Ukraine and conduct their research locally. In order to contribute to maintaining academic potential in Ukraine and provide a basis for reconstruction, Ukrainian academic institutions will be systematically included in the network.

Another goal of the Ukraine Research Network@ZOiS is to link academic institutions and approaches from Area (in particular East European and Ukrainian) Studies, Conflict Studies and Migration Studies, which have tended to work separately to date. Russia’s war against Ukraine calls for more intense scientific exchange between these fields.

The project strives to make available the expertise accumulated within the network from fellows, cooperating institutions and individual researchers to an expert audience, but also seeks engagement with the wider public through specific research communication formats. One important strategic aim is to include expertise on Ukraine in the curricula of universities and to raise awareness of Ukraine among students.

The Ukraine Research Network will receive funding for four years. It is a declared aim to use this time to build sustainable networks that will serve as a basis for future cooperation and to lay the foundation for cutting-edge social science research on Ukraine in a European and global context.