Ukraine's recovery will not be built on reconstruction alone. It will depend on a generation of specialists, researchers, and entrepreneurs who understand how economies work, how sectors connect, and how to build the cooperative structures that turn local potential into sustained growth. On 28 April 2026, with the support of Swisscontact, that foundation became a little stronger.
From programme to institution
The Educational and Scientific Laboratory for the Development of Business Ecosystems, Clusters and Partnerships opened at the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, one of the country's most significant academic institutions in agriculture and rural development. Established with Swisscontact support, the laboratory is designed to do something that development programmes rarely achieve: leave behind a permanent institutional home for the work.
Where Swisscontact's programmes have spent years building practical knowledge on entrepreneurship, market systems, and regional cooperation, this laboratory gives that knowledge a place to live beyond any single project cycle. It is a platform where academia, business, public institutions, and development partners can work together continuously, generating applied research, training future specialists, and developing solutions grounded in real economic conditions.
Why this investment matters now
Ukraine faces a recovery challenge of enormous complexity. Rebuilding damaged infrastructure is visible and urgent. But the deeper work, such as developing human capital, strengthening institutions, and creating the cooperative frameworks that allow regional economies to function, is slower, less visible, and just as critical.
This laboratory addresses exactly that gap. Students will gain direct exposure to how business ecosystems function in practice. Researchers will develop frameworks that connect academic insight to business and community needs. Institutions will find a structured space for the kind of cross-sector dialogue that produces durable policy solutions rather than short-term fixes.
It is, in the clearest sense, an investment in the people who will lead Ukraine's recovery.
The project manager of the Empower AgriWomen project added that for Swisscontact, this is about connecting knowledge with action: helping academic expertise become useful for communities, businesses, and regional development. "Ukraine’s recovery will require people who understand cooperation, can build partnerships, and are able to turn ideas into working models. This laboratory can become a place where such thinking is developed and translated into practice," Radko concluded.
This project is part of the Swisscontact Development Programme, which is co-financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Federal Department of Foreign Affairs FDFA. The project is also supported by additional funding partners, including Katholisch Stadt Zürich.