A “borsch” of Ukrainian IT designs will help win the war

From now on, innovational projects in Ukraine’s defense sector will draw support from business. Uk­rai­nian entrepreneurs are laun­ching Borsch Foundation, a new facility to award grants to startups. “This cha­ri­table foundation is supposed to support, above all, research and develop­ment ini­tia­tives and projects in the field of dual-use tech­nologies. This means they will all be aimed at improving this country’s defense capability. Only then we will consider the projects that can be carried out in the commercial sector,” says Yevhen Utkin, the initiator of establishing the Net­work­ing Cluster of High Technologies and the grant-awarding Borsch Founda­tion.

“Nobody wants a war. Only a madman can want one. But, at present, we have to get used to the fact that we are in a state of war and must learn, one way or an­other, to take advantage of this situation and make an innovational breakthrough,” adds Illia Koenigstein, Borsch Foundation’s managing partner, member of the board of the Networking Cluster of High Technologies, and an expert at the Reform Reanimation Package. He cites the example of Israel which has been at war for almost 67 years. Yet that country’s society shows consolidation to which nothing is more conducive than a war. “In principle, it is for this reason and because we can see an incredible phenomenon of volunteer movement that we wished to set up this foundation,” Koenigstein explains.

The foundation is going to closely cooperate with UA.RPA, a cutting-edge technology development agency, which will identify all the technical requirements and project development directions. “Working today in many fields that are indispensable from the angle of the country’s defense capability, we have come across the dire necessity of having up-to-date technologies in order to win. Naturally, moral motivation, training level, and professionalism also play an important role. But, as far as the most effective use of resources and achievement of the best result are concerned, it is the technological aspect that helps avoid surprises of the enemy and outplay the latter technologically,” UA.RPA president Ihor Kabanenko noted. In his words, this kind of projects will enab­le Ukraine not only to strengthen its defense and security, but also to develop, in the future, a lot of industries and build an innovational model that already exists, for example, in Israel and Germany.

Making their choice, the founders will first of all pay attention to the projects aimed at improving the battleworthiness and training level of army units, developing and introducing new state-of-the-art technologies into the military sphere. To achieve a systemic effect, the project authors can use new materials and breakthrough technologies as well as apply some of the earlier-made decisions.

On the whole, to submit a project for consideration, participants must send an electronic set of competition documents to the foundation’s (cluster’s) board. This should include information about the project’s objective, its technical description, the military of civilian fields of application, and a tentative plan of development.

The team that applies for a grant must consist of at least two persons, each of which being responsible for a separate field of work. “We emphasize that those who can come to us are not only the legally-registered startups, but also just the teams of like-minded people who would like to start up a business,” Koenigstein says.

Besides, those who want to take part in the competition do not need to have a professional education or to be of age. “You will be surprised to know that, in rea­lity, very many outstanding inventors are below the age limit set by the state,” Koenigstein adds.

The foundation will be awarding not more than one grant to one team to carry out a project. The amount of a grant will be set by an expert board with due account of the project’s requirements. On the ave­rage, startups can expect to receive funding worth 50,000 to a million hryvnias.