First Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Economic Development and Trade Stepan Kubiv and Minister of Education and Science Lilia Hrynevych signed a protocol on the distribution of authorities in innovation sector and agreed on key areas of cooperation. Pursuant to new arrangements, the Ministry of Education and Science (MES) is responsible for the formation of innovative environment in educational and scientific institutions, while the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MEDT) shall provide conditions for the commercialization of inventions.

Therefore, the MES will focus on creating conditions for the training of inventors and an innovative environment in schools, universities, research institutions, etc. The Ministry will also work at the establishment of communication platforms to bring together inventors and businesses, and development of mentor programs.

Meanwhile, the MEDT will create conditions for the commercialization of inventions and initiatives in the real sector of the economy.

"Our essential objective is to shape a policy that will make it easier for inventors to find financing, as well as to help startups to commercialize their decisions, to develop state and non-state support programs. With time the largest part of innovative ideas should be translated in real projects, instead of being stored on the shelves of laboratories or research centers", stressed Stepan Kubiv.

The First Vice Prime Minister added that keeping in mind the development of the startup environment in Ukraine it is crucial to ensure broad cooperation between ministries and departments with the business community, strengthening of communication with investors and amending the current legislation both at the level of laws and regulations.

"For the first time during our joint work in innovation sector, we agreed that the Ministry of Education and Science will shape priorities for scientific, scientific-technical and innovation activities with the participation of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, and on the basis of business demand. By now the Ministry of Education and Science has begun work on the drafting of a Strategy for Ukraine's Innovation Development, to which we have attracted more than 100 stakeholders. It is also relevant making necessary changes to the legislation. It concens, first and foremost, draft laws On Supporting Innovations and On Transfer of Technologies", Lilia Hrynevych underlined.

Moreover, the MES and MEDT will also work in synergy on introducing new approaches to entrepreneurial education, developing of innovation infrastructure, digitization of the economy and development of the intellectual property sector.