On January 25, the smart shelter CLUST SPACE officially opened at the Central Library of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. It is the first multifunctional shelter for students in Ukraine. Representatives from the government, education sector, business, and civic initiatives attended the event.
CLUST SPACE is a unique project that combines secure shelter with modern coworking. Its goal is to ensure uninterrupted educational processes during times of war and to serve as a platform for bringing together talented young individuals with businesses, as this space will continue to operate even after our victory.
“CLUST SPACE is not just a localized solution to the education problem during wartime but a systematic effort in student development. This project truly responds to a significant number of current societal demands and is a unique safety solution that can be replicated in other regions of Ukraine and beyond,” commented Ruslan Tymofieiev, the initiator of the CLUST SPACE project, entrepreneur, founder of the venture builder CLUST, and CEO of the venture fund Adventures Lab.
”Security is a critical condition for ensuring educational and scientific processes during times of war. Therefore, establishing a safe and comfortable smart shelter CLUST SPACE at Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, where the creative community can generate world-class innovations, holds great significance not only for the university but also for the country.
The new innovative shelter, based at our scientific and technical library, will serve both the KPI community and effectively be utilized by participants in the All-Ukrainian innovation ecosystem Sikorsky Challenge Ukraine, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, the Ministry of Digital Transformation, and other scientific and educational institutions and agencies for the development of innovations.” — comments Mykhailo Zgurovsky, Rector of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute.
”Security is a critical condition for ensuring educational and scientific processes during times of war. Therefore, establishing a safe and comfortable smart shelter CLUST SPACE at Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, where the creative community can generate world-class innovations, holds great significance not only for the university but also for the country.
The new innovative shelter, based at our scientific and technical library, will serve both the KPI community and effectively be utilized by participants in the All-Ukrainian innovation ecosystem Sikorsky Challenge Ukraine, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, the Ministry of Digital Transformation, and other scientific and educational institutions and agencies for the development of innovations.” — comments Mykhailo Zgurovsky, Rector of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute.
The construction of CLUST SPACE took approximately five months. It cost $400,000, as such a space involves various architectural requirements, including the ventilation system, armored glass, acoustic panels, autonomous power supply, accessibility, and more. All of this became possible thanks to the support of partners. The main donor of the CLUST SPACE project was Freedom Holding Corp.
“At Freedom Holding Corp. we believe that CLUST SPACE will become a real stronghold for Kyiv students and a place for effective interaction between business and creative youth. This space has the potential to become a place for the formation of a new generation of Ukrainian leaders and a territory where great ideas and unique innovations will be born and implemented,” adds Timur Turlov, investor and CEO of the international investment holding Freedom Holding Corp.
During the event, the chief architect of the space, Pavlo Peker, conducted a tour for guests and provided detailed information about the unique design solutions. Within the official opening of the CLUST SPACE, a panel discussion took place titled “Smart money: How Ukraine can make a technological leap. The role of business, government, and education.”
Among the speakers were:
- Mykhailo Zgurovsky, Rector of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute
- Denys Kurbatov, Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine
- Inna Maliukova, Head of Sikorsky Challenge
- Yuriy Kryvosheya, Vice President of the Canada-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, Managing Partner of Toronto-Kyiv, co-founder of Yakaboo, and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of “Promprylad.Renovation”
- Oleksiy Shaldenko, Ph.D., CEO/Co-founder of Wantent, Associate Professor at the Department of Digital Technologies in Energy at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute
- Nataliia Kushnerska, Head of DEFENCE-TECH cluster at Brave1.
The overarching theme of the panel discussion was the importance of collaboration between the government, the education sector, and businesses to ensure comfortable conditions for the education and upbringing of the younger generation, which will contribute to the recovery of Ukraine’s economy after victory and create innovative startups with Ukrainian roots.
The project initiators emphasized their plans to scale the CLUST SPACE smart shelter project to other regions of Ukraine and seek partners to implement their plans. CLUST plans to build the next smart shelter at Oles Honchar Dnipro National University, and they have already secured the first $100,000 from KPI graduate and IT entrepreneur Mykhailo Savchenko.
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Contacts: For additional information about the smart shelter CLUST SPACE, please get in touch with Olesia Zorina, Head of Communications at CLUST – o.zorina@clust.team or +380677278794.
Information: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1vCi5JlB9XDKYTUyq0kMSnJRBJU7YGmw6?usp=sharing
