The goal of the project is to extend our previous collaboration with universities in the Ukraine. To this end, we start a new collaboration with the Institute of High Technologies (ITH) of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (TSNUK) to attract excellent students to the Faculty of Science at Leiden University. Researchers in the Leiden Institute of Chemistry (LIC), together with staff of the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR) and the Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL), will start a collaboration with the Ukrainian company Enamine, a chemical contract research organisation that also has a strong collaboration with the ITH of TSNUK. 

More specifically, the project aims to exchange staff and students in order to train Ukrainian students within the LIC in the design, synthesis and application of small molecules in biomedical research and drug discovery. The Ukrainian students will benefit from the expertise and training in a state-of-the-art laboratory at LIC. TSNUK and Ukrainian companies will also benefit from this programme, as the students educated at the LIC will potentially be attractive employees, trained in the techniques relevant for the research carried out in the companies. The planned project will combine the profound theoretical background of the Ukrainian students with the state-of-the-art facilities of the LIC and the extensive experience in multidisciplinary research internships in chemical biology and drug discovery within the Faculty of Science.

The project is focused on the Chemistry and Life Sciences programmes of the Faculty of Science of Leiden University. The LIC offers two MSc programmes and two BSc programmes together with Delft University of Technology. Although there are enough students in both of the BSc programmes, the LIC would like to attract a greater number of excellent students to the MSc and PhD programmes in Leiden. The academic programmes and our research groups will benefit from an increase in the number of excellent students, and this mobility project can contribute to achieving this aim.

The TSNUK development strategy 2018-2025 ([http:] www.univ.kiev.ua/pdfs/official/Development-strategic-plan.pdf) describes the intention to:

• improve the quality assurance system of educational activities and higher education (internal quality assurance system) in the University;
• take into account the needs of the labour market in implementing educational activities;
• integrate into the international, primarily European educational space;
• extend its international cooperation with European universities.

One of the best ways to achieve this is by establishing bilateral partnerships to facilitate student and staff mobility and boosting research potential through Erasmus+ activities. The participating department of TSNUK is the Institute of High Technologies (IHT). Its interdisciplinary academic programmes in Chemistry and Life Sciences have much in common with those taught at Leiden University, which will greatly facilitate student and staff exchanges. A mobility project with Leiden University will also bring together teaching staff from both universities for international scientific projects to initiate and intensify scientific collaboration.

Ukraine is going through a very difficult time, and in some respects this has an impact on education. The Institute of High Technologies at TSNUK believes that the project with Leiden University will support participants and give them opportunities for individual development and for broadening their views and horizons.