International matchmaking healthcare event, with the participation of Horizon Europe Office in Ukraine, NRFU was held
On July 30, an international matchmaking event aimed at building strong Horizon Europe Cluster Health and Cancer Mission consortia was held. The event organised the Estonian Research Council in cooperation with Horizon Europe Office in Ukraine, NRFU, Latvian Council of Science, Research Council of Lithuania, Polish National Centre for Research and Development, Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the UK Research and Innovation — together with their National Contact Points. The event was realised within the project Estonia’s Support for Integrating Ukraine into the European Research Area (16.02.2026-30.11.2027).
The headline speaker at the event was Tayisiya Symochko, Horizon Europe Office in Ukraine Leading Officer, whose area of expertise includes, amongst other things, health-related calls. She spoke on Ukraine’s participation in Horizon Europe health research. In particular, she presented comparative statistics on Ukrainian participation in Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe, specifically the number of successful projects and the amount of funding. The speaker also informed in detail about some projects currently being implemented by Ukrainian organisations.
In addition, participants had the opportunity to give a brief presentation to an audience, showcasing their organisation, idea or expertise (pitch). Among the participants who took part in the pitch session were 7 representatives from Ukraine, 1 from Canada and 1 from the Republic of Poland. Following the pitch session, the event featured b2b-meetings, during which the parties connected with potential consortium partners who could bring complementary expertise to their work and strengthen their future applications for Horizon Europe Work Programme 2027 calls, and also tested and refined their project ideas in a trusted, expert-driven environment. In particular, Ukrainian participants took part in 27 b2b-meetings.
The event brought together researchers, innovators, companies, and policy stakeholders working at the forefront of the field of healthcare and oncology in order to exchange ideas, forge partnerships, and lay the groundwork for competitive European research consortia. In total, more than 70 persons joined the matchmaking event.
