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Addressing the needs of Ukrainian scholars at risk

Nature Human Behaviour volume 6, pages 746–747 (2022)Cite this article

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To the editor — In the first days of the Russian invasion, it became clear that the war would affect the entirety of Ukrainian society, including scholars, research programmes and collaborations. According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science, there were 60,000 researchers and 35,000 support staff in 2021 (ref. 1). Two weeks into the war, an estimated 4,000–6,000 scholars had already fled the country2. This number has probably grown substantially, but a large proportion of Ukrainian scientists remain in the country and face extraordinary difficulties.

The international scholarly community promptly reacted with various offers of support to their colleagues fleeing the conflict, but it soon became apparent that, without the systematic aggregation of opportunities, the support offers might not have been reaching the intended recipients. The need to gather opportunities in one place and to raise awareness about the conditions of Ukrainian scholars among the global research community laid the foundation for #ScienceForUkraine. We are now an initiative of about 100 volunteers based in 30 different countries actively seeking, collecting and disseminating information about opportunities for war-affected scholars.

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Fig. 1: An overview of new listings in the #ScienceForUkraine database, received between 28 February and 24 April 2022.

References

  1. The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. Science in Ukraine. mon.gov.ua, https://mon.gov.ua/eng/science/nauka/nauka-v-ukrayini (accessed 1 May 2022).

  2. Polishchuk, Y., Moskvina, V., Degtyarova, I., Galat, M. & Makaruk, L. Assessing the needs of Ukrainian scholars in dangerous circumstances (Version V2). Zenodo, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6413145 (2022).

  3. ERC. ERC for Ukraine: jobs for researchers fleeing the war. erc.europa.eu, https://erc.europa.eu/news/erc-ukraine-jobs-researchers-fleeing-war (18 March 2022).

  4. The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. Concept Plan (v.2.0 as of March 15, 2022) on the functioning of the education system, research and innovation sector of Ukraine during martial law and further reconstruction period related to Russian aggression. mon.gov.ua, https://mon.gov.ua/eng/ministerstvo/diyalnist/mizhnarodna-dilnist/pidtrimka-osviti-i-nauki-ukrayini-pid-chas-vijni (16 March 2022).

  5. ScienceForUkraine. Scholars and institutions willing to host Ukrainian researchers under general funding programmes are encouraged to submit a support offer to the #ScienceForUkraine database. scienceforukraine.eu, https://drive.google.com/file/d/16C9VW6ZiGoGdWZGTAdnbQwGR0cLkr0y_/view (22 April 2022).

  6. Stone, R. Aid keeps researchers afloat in Ukraine. Science Insider, https://www.science.org/content/article/aid-keeps-researchers-afloat-ukraine (14 April 2022).

  7. ScienceForUkraine. Scholars who remained in Ukraine need remote collaboration opportunities. scienceforukraine.eu, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KIO96sfir9oPkVOOKtxXzzx4iPr2_d_-/view (28 March 2022).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland

    Maciej Maryl

  2. Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands

    Oleksandra V. Ivashchenko

  3. Institute for Chemistry and Technology of Materials (ICTM) NAWI Graz, Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria

    Matiss Reinfelds

  4. Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art, University of Latvia, Riga, Latvia

    Sanita Reinsone

  5. Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Munich, Germany

    Michael E. Rose

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  1. Maciej Maryl
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  2. Oleksandra V. Ivashchenko
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  3. Matiss Reinfelds
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  4. Sanita Reinsone
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  5. Michael E. Rose
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Oleksandra V. Ivashchenko.

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M.M., O.V.I., M.R., S.R. and M.E.R. are coordinators of the #ScienceForUkraine platform

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Maryl, M., Ivashchenko, O.V., Reinfelds, M. et al. Addressing the needs of Ukrainian scholars at risk. Nat Hum Behav 6, 746–747 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-022-01387-7

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