COPILOT and TREATY Teams Participate in IVAP Workshop 2025 in Kraków
Representatives of the COPILOT and TREATY consortiums took part in the IVAP Workshop 2025, held from 24 to 26 November at the ICE Kraków Congress Center. The event convened more than 300 participants from across Europe, including teams from the EIT HEI Initiative, innovation experts, members of EIT KICs, policymakers, and university partners working collectively to advance deep tech innovation, sustainable development, and long-term institutional transformation.
The consortium delegation included Nataliia Tsyvenkova and Lyubov Shymko from the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine (NULES); Sofia Xesfingi from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greece); Atanas Hristov from the University of Information Science and Technology “St. Paul the Apostle”; and Ivan Omarov from Bila Tserkva National Agrarian University (BTNAU). Their joint participation demonstrated the strong collaborative spirit and shared commitment that unite the COPILOT and TREATY projects.
In this photo, Pamela Ragazzi, Innovation Ecosystems Manager at EIT Climate-KIC, meets with Nataliia Tsyvenkova, Lyubov Shymko, and Sofia Xesfingi from the COPILOT
Throughout the workshop, the consortium members actively engaged in keynote lectures, panel discussions, and thematic sessions focused on deep tech entrepreneurship, sustainability, partnership building, equality and inclusion, and institutional capacity strengthening. These activities supported open dialogue on the shared challenges and opportunities faced by higher education institutions, while also reinforcing the importance of collective learning across countries and disciplines.
Nataliia Tsyvenkova meets Laura Borge del Rey, Education Programme Manager at EIT Food.
The IVAP Workshop created an excellent environment for in-person coordination among partners. It allowed the consortium to reflect on progress, align future actions, and identify new pathways for strengthening innovation ecosystems within their institutions. Through discussions with other European teams, the partners also gained valuable insights into best practices in policy engagement, project sustainability, and long-term planning.
A key highlight for the consortium was the poster session, where Lyubov Shymko and Ivan Omarov presented the TREATY project poster, showcasing the project’s achievements, training activities, and real-world impact on participating universities. The presentation attracted significant attention from workshop participants, who expressed genuine interest in the project’s outcomes and were particularly impressed by the practical results, institutional changes, and innovative educational approaches developed within TREATY. This interaction sparked new connections and opened opportunities for future collaboration with partners across Europe.
This photo features Ivan Omarov (BTNAU) and Lyubov Shymko (NULES) presenting the TREATY project poster.
Participation in the IVAP Workshop 2025 marked an important milestone for the COPILOT and TREATY teams. It demonstrated the power of international cooperation, co-creation, and knowledge exchange in building more innovative, resilient, and future-oriented higher education systems. Such shared experiences reinforce the consortium’s mission to support deep tech innovation, develop sustainable solutions, and contribute to meaningful institutional transformation across Europe.