Institut für Europäische Politik IEP – english version

Think Tanks Project – ‘Platform for Analytics and Intercultural Communication’ (PAIC)

Ukrainian think tanks play a key role in the devel­opment of the Ukrainian state, and constitute a bridge between politics and society. As one of the main actors in Ukraine, think tanks exert an effective influence on policy-making processes through their work. The Euromaidan in 2014 has marked a turning point for Ukrainian think tanks as these protests consid­erably increased the demand for high-quality analysis about processes in Ukraine in both domestic and inter­na­tional environ­ments. In order for Ukrainian think tanks to exert most influence on national policy as well as on the European discourses, Ukrainian experts underline the necessity of expanding their profes­sional compe­tences and of a closer integration into European networks. At the same time, it is essential to consider inter­cul­tural differ­ences as well as the situa­tional context in order to detect and prevent possible barriers to cooper­ation with foreign partners.

These issues are addressed by the project ‘Platform for Analytics and Inter­cul­tural Commu­ni­cation’ (PAIC), which is organized by the Institute for European Politics (IEP, Berlin) in cooper­ation with the Ilko Kucheriv Democ­ratic Initia­tives Foundation (DIF, Kyiv), and the think tank Initiative think twice UA (Kyiv), with the support of the German Federal Foreign Office. More precisely, the project aims at the promotion of profes­sional skills among Ukrainian think thanks, the creation of synergies between Ukrainian and German think tanks, the transfer of knowledge about processes in Ukraine to Germany, the strength­ening of Ukraine expertise among junior researchers in Germany and the trans­mission of inter­cul­tural compe­tencies, which are essential for a successful cooperation.

The above-mentioned objec­tives will be realized within the period of 01.07.2018 to 31.07.2019 through imple­menting a series of activ­ities in Germany and Ukraine:

• Workshops for Ukrainian think tank repre­sen­ta­tives in both Kyiv and regional capitals. The main goal lies in the promotion of skills in the areas of policy analysis, research design, critical thinking, fundraising and inter­cul­tural communication;
• Study trip for Ukrainian think tank repre­sen­ta­tives to Germany, providing profes­sional exchange with German think tank repre­sen­ta­tives as well as meetings with key actors in economy, politics and academia;
• Study trip for German junior researchers to Ukraine, providing profes­sional exchange with Ukrainian think tank repre­sen­ta­tives. The exchange will concern various issues such as reforms in social policy, including the education and health sector, the decen­tral­i­sation process, human­i­tarian situation etc.;
• Ukraine expert discus­sions at the IEP, giving room to Ukrainian experts to present short academic lectures regarding current issues;
• Interview series with Ukrainian experts on the current situation of Ukrainian think tanks and processes within Ukraine. They will be published in both German and Ukrainian;
• Publi­cation of a quali­tative study which explores the cooper­ation between civil society organi­za­tions and state actors in Ukraine and Germany;
• Final conference in Berlin and Kyiv for both German and Ukrainian think tank repre­sen­ta­tives, in which the study will be presented.

This project builds upon the results of the study ‘Think Tanks in Germany and Ukraine: differ­ences and perspec­tives for cooper­ation’, conducted within the framework of the preceding project in 2016 ‘Think Tanks in Ukraine: strength­ening expertise and promoting European cooper­ation’ and the experi­ences from the PAIC project phase in 2017/2018.

Project team:
Dr. Katrin Böttger
Ljudmyla Melnyk
Mona Richter
Matthias Meier

The project „Platform for Analytics and Inter­cul­tural Commu­ni­cation” (PAIC) is kindly sponsored by:

Cooper­ation Partners: