Today, October 12, 2021, at the 23rd Ukraine-EU Summit, the Agreement on Ukraine's participation in the Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Framework Program and the European Atomic Energy Community's Euratom Research and Training Program were officially signed.

On behalf of Ukraine, by order of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the signatory was the Minister of Education and Science Serhiy Shkarlet. From the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community - Vice-President of the European Commission/EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Joseph Borrell.

"I am proud that Ukraine has become the first non-European Economic Area associated country to join the Horizon Europe Framework Program for Research and Innovation (2021-2027) and the European Atomic Energy Community Research and Training Program (2021-2025)," said Serhiy Shkarlet.

Once all the domestic procedures required for ratification of the Agreement have been completed, Ukrainian scientists, innovators and entrepreneurs can have access to all support tools and raise grants to implement joint international Horizon Europe and Euratom projects.

It is worth noting that Ukraine was an associate member and took an active part in the implementation of projects in the previous EU Framework Program for research and innovation Horizon 2020. We ranked seventh among the associated countries in terms of the amount of funds raised from the total budget of the program. As of October 2021, 228 grant agreements were signed by Ukrainian participants for a total of about EUR 45.8 million.

"Today's event is, first of all, close cooperation with the European Union. During the year, we made every effort to complete the necessary internal procedures for signing the Agreement. I would like to thank my European colleagues for fruitful and effective cooperation during the long negotiation process," the Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine stressed.

Implementation of the programs will create the necessary preconditions for Ukraine to become an influential European state by expanding international scientific and technical cooperation, creating favorable conditions for research, commercialization, development of national innovation and development of cooperation with European countries in determining current areas of research and innovation.

It should be reminded that Ukrainian higher education institutions and research institutions have got free access to EBSCO databases.