Lviv IT Cluster Launches a Nationwide Research Project IT Research Ukraine in Collaboration with Partners

Lviv IT Cluster continues to expand its research project, IT Research, which has thoroughly studied and analyzed Lviv’s tech market since 2015. In 2022, the Lviv IT Cluster conducted a unique study called IT Research Resilience, examining the impact of the full-scale war on the development of the tech industry in Ukraine. This year, IT Research is being expanded into a large-scale study called IT Research Ukraine, in partnership with the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine and with the support of the USAID Competitive Economy Program in Ukraine. Within the research, 10,000 tech professionals from all regions of Ukraine* will be surveyed for the first time, and each region will be thoroughly analyzed.

The IT Research Ukraine project aims to comprehensively study the tech industry in Ukraine using a verified methodology that has been refined over the past eight years. The research will provide a comprehensive picture of the country’s tech industry in the second year of the full-scale war. The results of IT Research Ukraine will ensure quality unified analytics that will allow tracking of the state and prospects of the tech industry in Ukraine, as well as detailed features in each region for sustainability and growth.

The Lviv IT Cluster and research partners announced the launch of IT Research Ukraine back in 2022. However, due to the full-scale Russian aggression, the project was adapted to the new realities: the state of the tech industry in Ukraine during the war was analyzed, and seven regions of Ukraine were thoroughly researched where a significant number of tech professionals relocated after the invasion.

This year, despite the full-scale war, the Lviv IT Cluster and partners will conduct a comprehensive nationwide study covering all regions of Ukraine*. Currently, a complete and systematic market analysis is crucial, as it will help understand the direction of the industry and serve as a basis for business and governmental decision-making. While the aggressive war by Russia has affected the tech industry, as it has affected any other sector, tech remains the only industry that grew in 2022. Furthermore, during the full-scale invasion, the sector accounted for 42% to nearly 49% of Ukraine’s total export of services, making it one of the pillars of the economy.

“IT Research Ukraine is a unique and comprehensive industry study with no analogs. Most existing industry overviews lack systematicity and a scientific approach, as they are mostly based on data from open sources and registries. During IT Research Ukraine, the Lviv IT Cluster, the largest association of tech companies in Ukraine, will survey 10,000 industry employees. We will explore the profiles of tech companies and specialists, migration patterns, and the impact of the war on the industry, identify the economic expectations of market players, uncover challenges they have faced, describe new opportunities, and assess the economic effect of the Ukrainian tech industry. As a result, we will obtain exhaustive information about the state of the tech industry in each region. Additionally, we will analyze the changes over the past year in the seven regions of Western Ukraine that we studied as part of the IT Research Resilience. This will make IT Research Ukraine the largest and most detailed research of the tech sphere ever conducted in Ukraine,” says Stepan Veselovskyi, CEO of Lviv IT Cluster.

For the second year, the IT Research Ukraine project is supported by the USAID Competitive Economy Program in Ukraine and the Ministry of Digital Transformation. The comprehensive sociological and economic analysis, as well as the verification of collected data, are provided by the Research agency Fama.

“The tech industry is highly dynamic, so much research is precious for us as policymakers in this sector. They help us maintain a constant and informed dialogue with businesses and measure the effectiveness of our work, determining further steps to support the industry’s stable development. This is particularly important now, as tech is the foundation for the country’s economic recovery after the victory,” says Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation Oleksandr Bornyakov.

“The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been assisting the technology sector since 2019. Since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion, USAID has increased the number of initiatives supporting Ukrainian high-tech, expanding support for Ukrainian government authorities, businesses, entrepreneurial associations, and workers to promote the implementation of world-class digital services and the creation of tech products that generate currency inflows and high-paying jobs. Last year, the agency partnered with the research. It revealed a high level of resilience in the tech industry while identifying threats to its future growth and outlining the horizons for transforming the Ukrainian economy into a more innovative and competitive one during the post-war recovery. The nationwide tech sector study aims to identify the factors hindering tech export dynamics recovery, investment attraction, job creation, and innovation implementation. We expect that donors, the government, and the private sector will join forces to address these issues. Stimulating tech sales, grant support, human capital development, startup and export financing, strengthening regional IT clusters, and supporting state initiatives remain our priorities, and the nationwide IT research, in particular, will best help determine where USAID should direct technical assistance during this critical time. We welcome initiatives and practices that will serve as a basis for decision-making and policy implementation,” states Natalia Petrova, USAID Project Manager.

* except the temporarily occupied territories and active combat zones.