For the first time in France, the first seminar of the Ukrainian scientific diaspora in France was held on February 21, 2023 thanks to the assistance of the Ukrainian Educational Research Association in partnership with the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme (FMSH), Paris (https://www.fmsh.fr/fr) and the University of Marseille (Aix Marseille University, https://www.univ-amu.fr/). Information support was provided by the NGO "Innovative University", https://inun.org.ua/ and the Office of Researcher Support https://sso.org.ua/.
Since the first days of the war, the Humanity House Foundation has provided significant support to Ukrainian scholars who were forced to live in France. Moral, material, language support, assistance with accommodation - all this has become significant for those scientists who have found themselves in another country. During the opening of the seminar, Marta CRAVERY, Director of Research and International Relations at the Humanity House Foundation, expressed concern about the situation of russia's armed aggression against Ukraine and shared the areas of assistance to the Ukrainian scientific community. Ms. Cravery spoke about the opportunities for young and experienced Ukrainian researchers to conduct research during short-term stays in France. She focused in particular on two projects - Atlas for young (up to 6 years after defending their Ph.D.) scientists and Themis programme, which supports intellectuals from developing countries and those with various obstacles to academic freedom. The requirements for these programmes are available at https://www.fmsh.fr/programmes.
The President of the Ukrainian Educational Research Association, Professor Oksana Zabolotna, expressed her support for Ukrainian scientists. She stressed the importance of the work that Ukrainian scientists do while displaced, under constant shelling and psychological pressure from the hostilities in their country. According to the President, it is the connection and involvement of scientists in Ukraine in the research of Ukrainian scientists in France that will provide motivation and inspiration for the implementation of joint projects. In addition, it is important, according to the President, to establish direct communication with French scientists to expand the horizons of research projects.
Yevheniia Polishchuk, Professor of the Vadym Hetman Kyiv National Economic University and coordinator of the Ukrainian Science Diaspora spoke about the project of the Scientist Support Office with the assistance of the Council of Young Scientists at the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. She called Ukrainian scientists conducting research abroad scientific ambassadors with a huge mission to change and develop national science after the end of the war in Ukraine and share positive foreign experiences. In addition, science ambassadors will help identify the needs of Ukrainian scientists and assist in the implementation of further science support programmes in Ukraine.
The third panel of the seminar featured five Ukrainian scientists with scientific experience gained at French universities: Paris Nanterre, Lettres Sorbonne Université, and Aix-Marseille Universite. Ukrainian scientists in France: Yulia CHYSTIAKOVA, Olena ROMANOVA, Natalia SHEVYAKINA, Oksana ZORYCH, and Olena KOVALCHUK conduct research in different fields of knowledge: law, philosophy, political science, agronomy, comparative pedagogy, but they came together at the seminar with a common goal of promoting Ukrainian science in the world and planning joint research.
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