Понеділок, 14 березня 2022 12:19

Petition: Open remote positions for Ukrainian refugee scholars

Dear research foundations, universities, scientific institutions, and governments!

We sincerely appreciate your willingness to support Ukrainian scientists that are endangered by the Russian invasion. We thank you for the numerous offers of temporary positions, scholarships and other mechanisms of support for the refugees. However, we would like to bring your attention to a significant issue faced by Ukrainians interested in these opportunities - many Ukrainian scholars remain confined in the country, so they need different types of remote opportunities.  

For many Ukrainian scholars crossing the border to leave Ukraine is not possible, but they will be able to take advantage of opportunities to work remotely. Some researchers are unable to leave the country due to their military obligations, while others are involved in supporting their families, internally displaced people, and others affected by war. Moreover, there are a lot of situations when the displacement may be dangerous. At the same time, not all of us are in the direct vicinity of the war and they can perform moderate or part time research. The opportunity to engage remotely will ensure that many more scholars affected by the war in Ukraine are able to continue scholarly work and engagement with the global academic community. Also, we need to note that carrying out of such activities is helpful to maintain the psychological health in our terrible situation.

We are demanding remote employment opportunities for Ukrainian scientists. As we learned during the COVID-19 pandemic, even those who do not have access to the labs and fields can do computer simulations, theoretical studies, literature reviews etc. COVID times demonstrated that remote scientific activities could be successfully performed and such employment could be arranged based on existing legal mechanisms. For example, such support could be in the form of micro bilateral grants, remote employment, access to the computational resources, libraries, and databases. Since an average monthly salary of the qualified scientists in Ukraine is around 500 USD, even minor financial support for the contribution to your projects will be crucial. Please consider this request for remote employment possibilities while developing new support programs and actions for Ukrainian scholars in need.

Petition initiated by:

Yuriy Khalavka, Doctor of chemical sciences, Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University

Yuriy Danko, Doctor and Professor, Sumy National Agrarian University

Iryna Yehorchenko, Senior Researcher Institute of Mathematics, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine

You can sign this petion under the link https://www.change.org/p/universities-open-remote-positions-for-ukrainian-refugee-scholars