On January 28, Kyiv Aviation Institute presented the concept of a science park that will become a center for developing solutions in the areas of deep tech, civilian UAVs, cybersecurity, defense tech, artificial intelligence, and others. Oleksii Dorogan, CEO at Better Regulation Delivery Office, joined the event to talk about the importance of changes to legislation that will help make science parks effective.
Science parks have a potential to attract more than UAH 500 million in investments and create 1,500 workplaces. However, restrictive regulations, excessive tax pressure, and the outflow of intellectual capital creates obstacles to this. To change the situation, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine has developed the Science.City concept, an initiative under WINWIN 2030 – Ukrainian Global Innovation Strategy.
The goal of the Science.City project is to unite the efforts of science, business, and the state, because innovation is the key to economic growth and Ukraine’s competitiveness in the international arena. Currently, only 5 out of 42 science parks are actively operating. To stimulate the work of science parks in Ukraine, it is necessary to change the current legislation and introduce tax incentives.
“The Science City concept is the result of the BRDO’s work with stakeholders. Our team sent inquiries to the State Tax Service of Ukraine, the State Treasury Service of Ukraine, and the State Customs Service of Ukraine, analyzed statistics provided by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, and the register of science parks. After careful research, we found that science parks are not becoming a link between science and business for various reasons. To solve this problem, we have developed a draft law on comprehensive legislative changes together with the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine. These changes will increase the economic freedom and efficiency of science parks, as well as reduce many risks. These deregulatory steps are necessary to build a model where business and science actively cooperate rather than act separately from each other,” said Oleksii Dorogan during the panel discussion.
On January 15, 2025, the “Science City. Connecting Business and Science” event was held to the present Science.City project and publicly discuss the proposed legislative changes. Consultations with government officials, science parks, and businesses to take into account all proposals for improving the regulations are in progress.