The network aims to connect these researchers with the local academic community, fostering collaboration and providing a platform for joint research projects. In the past two years, LURN continued its mission to foster collaboration and support Ukrainian researchers in Luxembourg and beyond. These two years featured a variety of workshops, conferences, and events, emphasizing skill development, cross-border collaboration, and the integration of Ukrainian researchers into the European research landscape. The main areas of focus for LURN funders Inna Ganschow and Marten Düring transitioned from skill development in 2023 to cross-border cooperation and networking, culminating in sustainable support in 2024.
A series of skill development workshops, especially tailored to employment in Luxembourg, was organized, focusing on academic communication, careers outside academia, job-hunting strategies, writing non-academic CVs, and interview techniques. Another hands-on series covered digital tools in academia, prompt engineering, and AI, helping LURN members not only learn some tools but also find the right resources and partners for further digital education and support.
Cross-border cooperation expanded the Luxembourg network by organizing joint events with Ukrainian researchers in France, Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands, culminating in the joint conference BeNeLURN in March 2023. Within Luxembourg, networking activities connected LURN members with representatives of Ukrainian organizations, including a school, library, scouting organization, student association, and the Ukrainian House in Mamer, along with its choir and dancing group Berehyni. The Ukrainian-speaking program Kalyna on Radio ARA in Luxembourg, hosted by LURN member Iryna Skrypak, offered a media platform for research dissemination. Additionally, the newly founded Alumni structure of UL provided opportunities to expand the network to former UL students and researchers seeking specialists with Ukrainian backgrounds.
Sustainable support for LURN members was provided by offering opportunities for employment, funding, and financing in Luxembourg and Europe through invited presenters from the Luxembourg School of Business, Lux Innovation, Technoport, Incubator, FNR, and many other supporting bodies and individuals. The positive outcomes of these presentations, talks, and informational meetings are evident in the successful projects of LURN members: Viktoriia Gorbunova won a Marie Skłodowska-Curie (MSCA) grant; Olga Kryvets secured an FNR grant; Zhanna Serdiuk received support from Oeuvre Grand-Duchesse Charlotte; Kseniia Fedorova and Kateryna Ivanishchenko obtained PhD positions; and Liudmyla Momotiuk and Nadiia Novytska found employment in semi-academic areas; Vladyslav Vodvichenko and Valentyna Kuryliak are employed at institutions in the USA. The management of LURN is done by the digest editor of LURN is Oleksiy Kiriukhin, a researcher in the UniGR-Center for Border Studies and Alexey Aleksandrov, who also acts as the coordinator of LURN and of the Luxembourg-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce.
In addition to regular meetings, LURN members participated in diverse activities of the U-CORE project led by Machteld Venken. In March 2024, they co-organized, moderated, and presented at the U-CORE and UNDIPUS conference “Ukrainian Studies Beyond the Borders.” In December 2024, they participated in a participatory data modeling workshop. Throughout the year, they gave interviews for the U-CORE Oral History archive on war testimonies and welcomed Ukrainian guest researchers Valentyna Shevchenko and Natalia Otrishchenko from the Lviv Center for Urban History, U-CORE partners. Kateryna Zakharchuk and Iryna Pogrebinska are employed in the U-CORE project as researchers for interviewing and content analysis. Ukrainian students Margaryta Aleksandrova and Vladyslav Siulhin are recruited as project assistants for transcribing interviews and working on the database.
Last but not least, the researcher Zhanna Serdiuk was accompanied in May and November 2024 by a film team from Romania (Cristina Hanes and Carmen Tofeni) as she is featured in a documentary about displaced Ukrainian scholars.
The 2023–2024 period demonstrated LURN’s commitment to support the integration and development of Ukrainian researchers in the global academic landscape. The LURN organization is, meanwhile, a self-managed group of peers where Marten Düring and Inna Ganschow still play the role of mentors, but the organization is fully in the hands of Olga Kryvets and Zhanna Serdiuk, who are taking care of program planning and communication, and Alexey Aleksandrov and Oleksiy Kiriukhin responsible for international relations of LURN and digest editing.
LURN events in 2023-2024
27.01.2023, LURN 4: This meeting was a set of skill development workshops, focusing on
- academic communication (Vanessa Napolitano),
- careers outside academia (Katia Kamlovskaya),
- job hunting strategies (Elisa Jensen), and
- interview techniques (Romain Raux).
The event was held in cooperation with the Luxembourg School of Business.
21.03.2023, BeNeLURN: This joint event united Belgian, Dutch, and Luxembourgish researchers from Ukraine, both online and on-site in Amsterdam, Groningen, Delft, and Luxembourg. Highlights included:
- An overview of the Initiative Science for Ukraine.
- A Q&A session on immigration law (Adolfo Sommaribas).
- A non-academic CV writing workshop (Romain Raux).
- Presentations on the Ukrainian Science Diaspora (Ihor Lymand and Yevheniia Polishchuk) and shared Ukrainian experiences in the Benelux region.
24.03.2023, LURN 5: Hands-on sessions covered digital tools in academia (Marten During, Inna Ganschow) and Q&A seession on migration law in Luxembourg (Adolfo Sommaribas). Networking sessions with Alumni UL (Andy Adams) and the members of the French (Olena Kovalchuk) and German networks (Viktoria von Rosen) of Ukrainian researchers.
19.05.2023, LURN 6: A meeting with Ukrainian diaspora organizations in Luxembourg featured:
- Presentations from the Ukrainian school (Lena Berkovich), library (Angela Domasova), scouting organization (Eugene Smoliak), and student association (Yehor Smyrnov).
- Academic talks on the history of the Ukrainian diaspora (Zhanna Serdiuk) and Artificial Intelligence (Volodymyr Nemchenko).
21.06.2023, LURN 7: This meeting was an internal conference showcasing LURN members’ research, including:
- Universal Mental Health Training for frontline professionals (Victoria Gorbunova).
- Cross-border cooperation insights (Oleksiy Kiryukhin).
- Research ethics (Kateryna Ivanishchenko).
- Resilient urban futures post-Maidan (Olga Kryvets).
- Transformative trends in banking (Alexey Aleksandrov).
19.10.2023, LURN 8: A gender studies-oriented meeting included:
- The Music and Gender in Luxembourg (MuGi.lu) platform (Sonja Kmec).
- Digital methods in female forced labor research (Inna Ganschow).
- An elevator pitch workshop for female researchers (Oksana Albul).
The new member presentation: Machine Learning and AI insights (Yuri Dolganov).
17.11.2023, LURN 9: Current research of the LURN members presentations:
- Digital technologies in academic management (Igor Dunaev).
- Ukraine’s local taxation system (Nadiia Novytska).
- Decision-making methodologies (Alexey Aleksandrov).
22.12.2023, LURN 10: The final meeting in 2023 summirized the successful projects and opened a discuession for individual mentoring:
- Presentations of successful grant projects (Victoria Gorbunova, Olga Kryvets, Oleksiy Kononov).
- Presentations on the VYSH project, combining AI and embroidery design (Kateryna Zakharchuk, Inna Ganschow) and Ukrainian festive dance (Hanna Vechirko).
- A geopolitical talk on the Israel-Hamas conflict (Iryna Pogrebinska).
- Talks on the university’s mentoring program for Ukrainian researchers (Ines Crisostomo).
22.02.2024, LURN 11: Homecountry and hostcountry researchers were invited to discuss:
- Digital governance in post-war Ukraine (Igor Dunaev).
- Integration of Ukraine’s higher education into the European space (Maryna Novikova).
- Legal priorities for European integration (Sergii Prylypko).
Current research of LURN members presented:
- A presentation on viral and bacterial agents’ effects on human health (Khrystyna Melentieva).
- The launch of the LURN digest No. 1 (Oleksiy Kiryukhin).
06.12.2024, LURN 12: This final event included the current research update of the LURN members:
- Talks on cultural alienation of Ukrainians abroad (Iryna Skrypak) and innovations in education (Kateryna Ivanishchenko).
- Research on prompt engineering for ChatGPT (Volodymyr Nemchenko).
The invited guest presented:
- European project “Seeds of Bravery” (Olena Malchyk, Inna Perepelytsya).
- A documentary on Russian propaganda (“ZINEMA” by Philippe Schockweiler).