FACT FINDING MISSION TO UKRAINE

Following establishment of STACCIS activity in Russia and Moldova, this mission was undertaken as one of a series intended to launch participation in the seven European CIS Member States.

A number of meetings were arranged for the mission by the national STACCIS focal point, the State Research Centre "FONON" (Mr. Gvishiani was only able to participate starting on 29 August).

The State Research Centre "FONON" is directly under the Ministry of Science and Technology (recently replacing the State Committee on Science, Technology and Industrial Policy). "FONON" is has a major research effort in applied physics and has recently obtained a contract for research in information science (e.g. on database structures and interfaces) from its parent Ministry. "FONON" also provides substantial informatics services to the Ministry, for example in managing the national database of research proposals and projects (about 5000 including around 800 with an IT component). Out of 1200 research contractors for the Ministry, only about 200 are in the private sector, and this number has been recently decreasing.

The National Technical University of Ukraine (still widely known by its former name, Kiev Polytechnic Institute - "KPI"), is active in informatics training through its Faculty of Physics and Technology and its Design Office of Information Systems (CIM Centre) with CAD/CAM facilities. It is also active in informatics research through the newly formed the Institute for Applied Systems Analysis which is jointly managed with "FONON".

The largest IT research centre is the Institute of Cybernetics of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences which houses the UNESCO/IIP International Research and Training Centre. This centre is heavily involved in promoting computer and Internet literacy, and is working within the Copernicus programme of the CEC (with institutions in Bulgaria, Lithuania and the Netherlands) on a project to develop WWW-based telematics training courses in English for educators, engineers (network specialists) and businessmen. It has also developed an introductory e-mail based course for the Internet in Russian and Ukrainian which will begin in October 1996 and has been offered free of charge to STACCIS project participants.

The major impediment to development of telematics cited by almost all interlocutors is the difficulty and cost in obtaining reliable telecommunication channels. There are half dozen relatively small private Internet service providers in the country, but no organized national academic network in Ukraine. The Ministry of Science and Technology postponed consideration of national scientific networking project during its reorganization. The present state of academic networking is reviewed below.

Ukraine is very interested in environmental applications of telematics, particularly concerning the monitoring and mitigation of the Chernobyl disaster and the management of biosphere reserves. Due to time constraints the mission was not able to consult directly with the specialists involved, who will be contacted by the national STACCIS Coordinating Committee.

The Minister of Education of Ukraine, as well as representatives of the Ministry of Science and Technology and the National Commission of Ukraine for UNESCO expressed strong support for the STACCIS project during the mission. There was particular interest in rapidly initiating the information exchange, training and demonstration components of the project.

In the final meeting including the major STACCIS counterparts, it was agreed that the following activities would be undertaken by the Ukrainian side in the short term:

1. Constitution of a national STACCIS Coordinating Committee covering telematics applications in education, research and environmental management, whose tentative composition is given below. A complete e-mail and address list of the members should be compiled and provided to EDNES. The Committee should convene in September 1996 with an invitation to EDNES to be represented.

2. Circulation of the STACCIS telematics resources questionnaire to a wide range of Ukrainian educational, research and environmental organizations, as well as to service and network providers, and collect, verify and provide the replies to EDNES by mid-October. It was agreed best to use the English language version of the questionnaire, along with an explanatory page to be provided by EDNES, in order to ensure replies in English.

3. Nomination of a national telematics information/demonstration centre to collaborate in the STACCIS network, and preparation of a list of resources and needs of the centre.

4. Implementation of the offer of the UNESCO/IIP Research and Training Centre at the Institute of Cybernetics to participate in the STACCIS training team by taking responsibility for the distance training module on telematics in education. As a model for the STACCIS training activity, the Centre will make available its e-mail based course on "Introduction to the Internet" to STACCIS project participants, and make available their feedback for planning of future modules.

5. Hosting of a meeting of STACCIS project national coordinators in Kiev on 17-18 December 1996.

The mission provided an opportunity to inform the concerned Ukrainian authorities on the project and to establish a framework for continuing cooperation. In order to gain the expected mutual advantages from this cooperation, a number of recommendations have been formulated by the mission:

1. The STACCIS Coordinating Committee which has been established includes qualified specialists representing appropriate institutions. They should be enabled by the national authorities to devote sufficient effort to the project as an investment in the future, despite severe restrictions on resources presently available for research and educational activities in the country.

2. The cost and unreliability of telecommunications in Ukraine present serious impediments to growth of the Internet and thus of telematics applications in the country. Measures to promote a national academic and research network, and also more general and affordable public access to the Internet (for example through "cyber-cafés") are a prerequisite for progress in telematics applications.

3. In these contexts, the project should be seen as a mechanism to provide Ukrainian specialists with know-how and contacts to approach major funding agencies to open telematics market possibilities and develop telematics applications and infrastructure in the country. The CEC and UNESCO can be important facilitators in this process.

4. The relatively poor mastery of Western European languages by many Ukrainian telematics specialists will also be a hindrance to development of strong East-West cooperation. A training programme in this area, perhaps making appropriate use of telematics, would be very useful in overcoming this barrier.

Existing computer and network resources suitable for STACCIS purposes:

There are a half dozen commercial Internet providers in Ukraine, offering access in Kiev and other major cities through dial-up and leased lines. These services are priced beyond the means of public sector users.

The first Internet connections were developed by the Institute of Condensed Matter Physics in Lvov in cooperation with academic networks in Austria and Poland.

UNDP began its networking project in 1993 by linking the Ukrainian Parliament in Kiev with the node in Lvov by means of a 2 Mb/s terrestrial channel. The UNDP office then established a 64 kb/s satellite link to the Netherlands for its own use and to provide Internet services to public sector and NGO users who had no means of access to the Internet. The system now includes full Internet services through dedicated channels to the Parliament, the research centre of the Interior Ministry, the Open Society Institute (Soros Foundation) and the Eurasia Foundation; the latter two foundations are in turn public sector Internet providers, and UNDP itself provides free dial-up e-mail services to about 700 public sector institutions. UNDP also ensures, through direct and indirect links, the routing of Ukrainian traffic between the public sector networks and all of the major private sector providers.

The Open Society Institute is located in rented premises in the Physiological Institute of the Academy of Sciences. It is connected to the Internet through UNDP and a 28.8 kb/s terrestrial link to Moscow (Russian FreeNet). It has set up 2 Mb/s microwave channels to five major academic and research sites in Kiev (including the KPI and Kiev State University) and is providing Internet access to about 800-900 users in these institutions through LANs and dial-up links. The microwave system is experimental and has not been officially authorized by the national telecommunication regulators. The Institute is discussing with the major research and academic institutions the possibility of establishing a foundation to manage and finance the national academic network after the termination of Soros funding expected within about a year.

The Open Society Institute is a member of the consortium responsible for the NICE (National Host Interconnection Experiments with Global Linkage) project funded by the ACTS programme of DG XIII (dealing with advanced communication technologies). This project will use ATM for satellite-based experiments in teleconferencing and multi-media e-mail including universities and research institutions in Russia and Ukraine; the STACCIS project would be welcome to propose collaboration in these demonstrations which will begin in 1997 by providing content (e.g. training in and consultations on the future of telematics applications in the CIS).

The Open Society Institute is working with NATO to extend Internet access to public sector users in Crimea.

Ongoing project activities