From November 30, 2023, the implementation of Jean Monnet international research project “Challenges and opportunities of EU heritage diplomacy in Ukraine”, 101127459 – HER-UKR – ERASMUS-2023 (November 30, 2023 – November 30, 2026) has started at Bohdan Khmelnytsky National University of Cherkasy.

The project, which unites 15 institutions of higher education, is coordinated by Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium). The participants of the project are the universities of Hong Kong, Georgia, Estonia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, the USA, France, the Czech Republic, Sweden, two universities of Great Britain and two Ukrainian universities – National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and Bohdan Khmelnytsky National University of Cherkasy. The project, which focuses on the role of cultural heritage in the EU external activity, brings together experts on EU foreign policy, Eastern European memory policy and cultural practices on an interdisciplinary basis.

The preparatory period for the launch of the project involved the reconciliation and signing of partnership agreements and the development of the overall project management plan by its coordinator – the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium) on February 23, 2024. The project management plan was brought to the attention of all its participants at the general meeting held online.

Currently, the project has its own website (https://www.kuleuven.be/her-ukr/index.htm), where the information about the tasks of the project, the teams of its executors and the main news related to the project can be familiarized with. A report on the project was made by Head of the project from BKNUC, Professor Svitlana Zhabotynska on March 25, 2024 at the meeting of Bohdan Khmelnytsky National University of Cherkasy Rectorate.

Within the framework of the project, Bohdan Khmelnytsky National University of Cherkasy together with the University of Canterbury (New Zealand) is implementing the work package “Strategic communication of Ukraine’s heritage”. The tasks planned for the current year 2024 are (1) monitoring the world press regarding its coverage of articles about Ukrainian heritage and (2) developing and pilot testing the information e-platform UKROPEDIA (UKRayinskyi OPir (Ukrainian Resistance)), which comprises selected from the Internet English- and Ukrainian-language information about Ukrainian heritage and systematizes this information employing a cognitive ontology, which enables a quick thematic search for the necessary material.

World press monitoring for February 22, 2022 – July 30, 2024. During February-March 2024, the team of world press monitoring leaders (Professor Natalia Chaban /UC/, Doctor Daria Kuznetsova /UC/ and Professor Svitlana Zhabotynska /BKNUC/) carried out a selection of world publications for the analysis of the articles on Ukrainian heritage and developed a comprehensive procedure for analyzing the content of these publications using a detailed Google-form. On March 23, 2024, during the inaugural online meeting, a team of Ukrainian and New Zealand scientists was introduced to the researched material and the principles of its analysis. The summary of its first results took place on May 13, 2024, when aspects requiring revision or improvement were identified.

The refined analysis procedure, which eliminated a number of remarks that arose at the beginning of the work, was brought to the attention of scientists with appropriate methodological support at the end of June 2024 (discussed in online meetings on June 22 by the BKNU team and on June 27 by the teams of BKNU and Canterbury University). So far, the team of BKNU scientists (Dr. O. Pyetsukh, Ph.D. T. McGowan, Lecturer L. Nechyporenko, Masters A. Chernenko and Ye. Dotsenko) has collected over 910 publications about Ukrainian heritage (February 2022 – May 2024), from American, British, German, Polish, Italian, Hungarian mass media and from the European news channel Euronews. Data processing is expected to be completed by the end of August with reports for presentations at a conference to be held in Leuven (Belgium) on October 23-25, 2024.

Development and pilot testing of the UKROPEDIA information e-platform. The development of the UKROPEDIA e-platform idea, conducted in January-February 2024 (Prof. Svitlana Zhabotynska), resulted in its working version, discussed and approved by scientists from the University of Canterbury (Prof. Natalia Chaban, Dr. Daria Kuznetsova) and Bohdan Khmelnytsky National University of Cherkasy (Prof. Anatoliy Chaban and Prof. Natalia Zemzyulina). On March 19, 2024, the revised UKROPEDIA project was presented to the Heads of the Digital Laboratory of the University of Canterbury, Prof. Christopher Thomson and Prof. Jeffrey Ford, who provide the technical implementation of the information e-platform (completion date – 2026). In April – June 2024, a test of the pilot version of the materials selection for UKROPEDIA took place, in which 63 students of the Educational-Scientific Institute of Foreign Languages ​​(bachelor’s and master’s degrees) participated. As a result, more than 330 Internet materials (videos and articles, mostly in English) were selected and annotated. The materials corresponded to different themes of the two information spaces of the e-platform – “Ukrainian heritage” and “Ukrainian heritage under Russia’s attack”.

The results of the UKROPEDIA pilot project will be presented at a conference in Leuven (Belgium) on October 23-25, 2024. Taking into consideration the success of the pilot project, it is planned to involve various Educational-Scientific Institutes and Faculties of Bohdan Khmelnytsky National University of Cherkasy in its implementation, for which in August 2024 an interdisciplinary scientific group that ensures the selection of materials, as well as an editorial board responsible for the substantiality and quality of information content and its appropriate design, will be created.

Svitlana Zhabotynska, Professor, Head of the group of scientists of Bohdan Khmelnytsky National University of Cherkasy