How can clusters help transform urgent industrial challenges into concrete cooperation opportunities?
From 2 to 4 September 2026, IDEALIST partner APPAU (Association of Industrial Automation of Ukraine), together with the Ukrainian Cluster Alliance, organised the three-day online conference “Clusters as Orchestrators of the European Dual-Use & Defence Innovation Ecosystem.”
The event brought together Ukrainian and European stakeholders to explore practical mechanisms for connecting Ukraine’s operational experience and rapidly evolving innovation ecosystem with European technologies, industrial capacities, research infrastructures and cooperation programmes.
Over three days, the discussion followed a clear progression: from identifying priority capability gaps, to connecting concrete Ukrainian cases with European solutions and finally to transforming the most mature opportunities into cross-border partnerships, testing corridors and potential European consortia. The programme covered areas including critical components, prototyping and testing, advanced manufacturing, industrial scale-up and SME-to-SME cooperation.
Clusters as cooperation orchestrators
One of the key messages emerging from the event was the importance of moving beyond a one-way model of cooperation.
Ukraine brings rapid adaptation, operational experience, real-world validation and flexible manufacturing capabilities, while European partners can contribute enabling technologies, research and testing infrastructure, standards, industrial expertise and access to wider value chains.
In this context, clusters can play an important role as ecosystem translators and cooperation orchestrators: identifying complementary capabilities, connecting companies and research actors and helping transform initial exchanges into pilots, production partnerships and future consortia.
This perspective is closely aligned with IDEALIST’s mission to strengthen the resilience and adaptability of SMEs by supporting collaboration, advanced technology uptake and more resilient industrial value chains across the project’s three ecosystems: Aerospace & Defence, Energy-Intensive Industries, and Mobility, Transport & Automotive.
Continuing the conversation at the IDEALIST Final Event
The Ukrainian perspective and the resiliences stories of APPAU’s members will be a part of the IDEALIST Final Event, taking place on 24 November 2026 in Lyon and online.
Alexandre Yurchak from APPAU and the Ukrainian Cluster Alliance will be sharing first-hand insights from the Ukrainian industrial ecosystem and reflecting on resilience in a context where adaptation, cooperation and innovation are everyday necessities.
After three years of European collaboration, the IDEALIST Final Event will bring together clusters, SMEs, policymakers, innovation experts and European stakeholders to discuss a central question: how can Europe build more resilient industrial ecosystems for the future?
Register here to the Final Event!
Several IDEALIST partners took part in the September conference, and we were honored to be part of such an exchange. We were also pleased to see IDEALIST receive a special mention during the event, reinforcing the relevance of the project’s work on resilience, cooperation and stronger industrial ecosystems.
For further information, contact info@idealist-project.eu