Kharkiv IT Cluster Q1 2019: 56 companies, USAID investments into Kharkiv IT-industry and Internat...

11 April 2019 y.

On April 7th Kharkov IT Cluster held a reporting meeting and summed up the work of the first quarter of 2019. For this eventful time and projects, the team of the Cluster managed to grow and attract new members. Engineering Idea, Valtech and the Institute of Law, Technology and Innovation (ILTI) became the members, and Avantage, Edelvejs SK, Magrat Management and 3 more educational institutions: UIPA, Kharkov Telecommunications College and Kharkov University of Internal Affairs became the partners of NGO. In general, the Cluster is confidently moving towards the realization of its main mission - it develops the environment for technology business in the region and implements projects in 4 strategic areas: education, promotion of Kharkiv as an IT-location, infrastructure development and developing the IT-community of the region. For the first time in this quarter, the Cluster held a strategic session on education. It resulted in a number of additional human capital development projects for the industry. Most of them have already been launched with the support of partnering universities. These projects are:

• Kids2IT - popularisation of core specialties among school students;
• The start of the second semester of the master program "Digital Media" within KNU of V.N. Karazin;
• Workshops on trending topics for students within OPEN IT project;
• News from the world of IT for university professors within Professors2IT project;
• "Enrol in Kharkiv!" - the motivation program for schoolchildren from the suburb to go to study in Kharkov;
• Kharkiv IT Cluster took the helm of the NewEdu International Education Forum: Tech in Focus.

The vector of popularisation of Kharkiv as a perspective location for the development of IT business in the region was also eventful. Kharkiv IT Cluster team participated in international exhibitions and conferences, business meetings with Western diplomats to strengthen the position of the industry in the global technology market. Executive Director Olga Shapoval participated in the development of key messages for the IT sector at the country level, and the Cluster, in its turn, adjusted its communication strategy taking into account the outlined lines at the international level, and also strengthened its presence in the media within the national information space. A separate direction of Kharkiv IT Cluster activities was an interaction with international organisations and state authorities. Kharkiv IT sector was included into the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) program to improve the IT-attractiveness of Ukraine at the international market . This means that representatives of small and medium-sized IT businesses offering their products to the market can count on the support of the Agency. The IT-startups incubator has already opened in Kharkiv and now it is accepting applications from startups seeking a financial support. Additionally, the Cluster interacts with local authorities and helps to transform Kharkiv into Smart City. Talking about internal values for Kharkiv IT Cluster members and partners, as a part of one of its fundamental functions to protect participants from adverse factors, the Cluster launched the Red Alert emergency legal support system. And finally, the executive director of Kharkiv IT Cluster, Olga Shapoval, showed a successful start after the reloading of all the processes, together with a team of like-minded people, continues to develop Kharkiv and its progressing IT industry.