THE MEETING OF THE AGROTECHNICA CLUSTER BOARD TOOK PLACE ON JULY,

On July 28, 2017 within the business program of the Field Day LOZOVA MACHINERY-2017 the meeting of the Expert-Coordination Board of Education Innovation Cluster AGROTECHNICA took place.

During the meeting the representatives of Kharkov Regional State Administration, engineering and agro-industrial enterprises of the country, engineering centers, leading agrarian universities of Ukraine, which are members of the cluster, discussed the current issues and planned further work schedule.  

The Head of Expert-Coordination Board of Education Innovation Cluster AGROTECHNICA, Eduard Simson, who opened the meeting, noted that the main purpose of the meeting is creating of research-technical program of AIC development. “The innovation, energy efficiency, precise and gentle farming are the key points that should become the base of the program. Now we face an important task – to create a new generation of "smart" trailed tillage equipment for efficient farming. In November we plan to present the first sample of the smart-implements range to the international industrial community at the biggest exhibition of agricultural equipment AGRITECHNICA in Hanover", – says Eduard Simson.

In addition, the Head of the Board announced at the meeting joining AGROTECHNICA cluster the European Cluster Association: “The European Cluster Association is a consolidation of about 150 European clusters. The membership in this association will allow us to apply our projects to European financial establishments not directly from our universities, institutions or the cluster itself, but directly through the European Cluster Association procedure that subsequently increases the likelihood of a positive decision. In addition, it is also an efficient platform for international partnership".

The People's Deputy of Ukraine, the Executive Director of the National Industry Development Committee, Honorary President of UPEC IG, Anatoliy Girshfeld pointed out in his speech that it is needed to finance the science that will lead to efficient results for the agricultural sector of the economy. "One of the main our goals is to create competitive export-oriented agricultural branch in Ukraine that will present our company on the international level. Within this it is necessary to establish the production of machinery that has the characteristics of innovation, precision and gently agriculture, as well as energy efficiency. It is the basis for many years that will not only form the development of the agricultural engineering, but also the competitiveness of the entire agrarian sector. Therefore at this stage it is necessary to define the criteria of such agricultural machinery that after all will become the ground of a new range of implements and will be financed from the budget by separate mechanisms of compensation", – noted Anatoliy Girshfeld.

At the end of the Board meeting, the Memorandum on joining to the AGROTECHNICA cluster of two more participants was signed. They are the National Research Center Institute of Mechanization and Electrification of Agriculture of Ukrainian Academy of Agrarian Sciences (NSC IMESKH UAAS) and Kharkov National Agrarian University named after V.V. Dokuchajev. 

Rector of KNAU named after V.V. Dokuchajev Aleksandr Ulyanchenko pointed out that cooperation of the university and cluster will be fruitful and productive: "The research activity of KNAU named after V.V. Dokuchajev is involved in development of new technologies of gentle crops cultivation. We have already had a number of interesting offers for cientific and technical program of agrarian complex development".   

The AGROTECHNICA cluster is based on the mutually beneficial partnership among the participants, in particular the production and science, aimed to the introduction of innovative technologies for saving land resources and improving the efficiency of the country's agricultural sector. 

Reference:

The innovative and educational cluster AGROTECHNICA is one of the most successful examples of public-private partnership. It was established on June 24, 2015. The initiators and founders of the cluster became Kharkov Regional State Administration, UPEC Industrial Group with its members – Lozova Forging-Mechanical Plant and Ukrainian Transmission and Chassis Design Bureau; Kharkov Petro Vasylenko National Technical University of Agriculture, Kharkov regional organization of employers in AIC.

Currently seven leading agrarian universities are members of the cluster, including UkrNIIPIT named after L.Pogoreliy and PJSC Kharkiv Bearing Plant.