Alexandre Yurchak

The Ukrainian Cluster Alliance (UCA) is the national association of 40 Ukrainian clusters (2500+ SMEs) covering major industries and regions. The mission of UCA is to consolidate and develop the clusters movement in Ukraine, enabling the strengthening of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and their fast integration of European and global value chains. In 2022 UCA has got wide international recognition, establishing international collaboration with 20+ international organizations from EU and US, such as European Cluster Alliance (ECA), TCI, European Cluster Collaboration Platform, EIT Manufacturing, International Trade Council and others. The UCA has developed coordinated national-level activities covering all primary Ukrainian industries. In Ukraine, UCA closely cooperates with the Cabinet of Ministries of Ukraine (incl. Ministry of economy of Ukraine), Export and entrepreneurship promotion office of Ukraine, 10+ Regional authorities and other State institutions. These activities are strongly oriented toward the internationalization of Ukrainian clusters and supporting so-called ‘critical’ industries in Ukraine during war times. The UCA's structure aims to support and promote initiatives such as smart specialization, better integration into European value chains, innovations, digitalization, and green transition. The UCA provides strong value propositions and a wide range of services to its members in the mentioned area. In the internationalization area, UCA organizes business and trade missions and clusters-to-clusters meetings, provides services of ECCP and EEN platforms (by its partners), operates two own local platforms of matchmaking and innovative fundraising, and relies on aid and capabilities of many international partners. UCA developed and continuously improved the quality of the project portfolio for Resilience and Recovery of Ukraine. Today, it includes almost 50 projects oriented on both industrial ecosystems and developing value chains in various industries, such as Agrifood, Healthcare, Textile, Engineering, Machinery, Industrial Automation and IT, Utilities, and so on.