RUKOPYS: Ukraine creates first handwriting recognition dataset and launches AI solutions for government use

The Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture, with the support of the Ministry of Digital Transformation and in partnership with AI HOUSE and the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU), has launched an initiative aimed at overcoming one of the key barriers to digitalisation – working with handwritten data. The “Handwritten to Data” hackathon is being implemented to introduce the best technological solutions into the eDozvil (ePermit) system and other public services where the processing of handwritten documents remains a critical need.

At the centre of the initiative is RUKOPYS, Ukraine’s first large-scale open annotated dataset of Ukrainian handwritten text. It has been developed through cooperation between government institutions, universities and the AI community as foundational infrastructure for creating models capable of effectively recognising handwritten documents in the Ukrainian language.

The development of practical solutions based on RUKOPYS will take place within the framework of the “Handwritten to Data” hackathon. Participants will work on tools for the automatic recognition and processing of handwritten applications, registers, certificates and other documents that are still widely used across the public sector.

Unlike traditional hackathons, the initiative is focused not on experimental prototypes, but on developing production-ready solutions. Participants will gain access to real-world data and work on tasks with direct practical relevance for the state.

The implementation of the initiative is expected to significantly accelerate document processing, reduce the number of manual operations and improve the efficiency of public authorities.

RUKOPYS, combined with applied AI solutions, is expected to become the foundation for eliminating the “blind spot” in digitalisation and enabling fully fledged data processing across the public sector.