On April 11th, Web2Learn hosted a webinar aimed at exploring the role of businesses and
academia in promoting resilience in response to the Ukrainian crisis in the Baltic region. The
interactive session brought together experts and stakeholders from the business, academic, civil
society, and policy-making sectors from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Europe more broadly. The
event was attended by 51 participants.
The workshop began with a presentation by Katerina Zourou, Ph.D., Head of Web2Learn, who
introduced the scope of the webinar. This was followed by Kateryna Boichenko’s overview of
examples of businesses’ response to the Ukrainian humanitarian crisis. The rest of the workshop
consisted of presentations from renowned experts in the field who shared their experiences and
insights on how businesses can support higher education institutions to address the humanitarian
crisis and empower refugees to continue their learning and life journey.
Mārcis Miķelsons-Germs, Head of User Experience Design Department at digital design agency
Cube, talked about the role of Stopify, a mental health support and crisis intervention organization,
in supporting academic resilience for the Ukrainian crisis response in the Baltics.
Oleksandr Pavlenko, CEO & Co-Founder at Choizy, shared his experience of interaction with a
local school and plans to deepen partnerships with other educational institutions in the Baltic and
Eastern Europe.
Mantas Našlėnas, International Energy Cluster Coordinator, CEO “Fidum”, Ltd., discussed the
project in cooperation with Kaunas University of Technology to support Ukraine in reconstructing its
energy infrastructure.
Ganna Tron, Senior Specialist at the International Cooperation Department, Marketing Unit,
and Unibbudy Platform Coordinator at Vytautas Magnus University, shared the efforts at Vytautas
Magnus University to support Ukrainian refugees in the Baltics through academic resilience and the
role of businesses in this crisis response.
As Kadri Tiisvelt, COO and Member of the Board at Garage48, was unable to attend, Kateryna
Boichenko presented Garage48’s initiatives and support provided to Ukrainian refugees during the
Ukrainian crisis.
The speakers provided insights and examples of how businesses and academia can support
higher education institutions to address the humanitarian crisis and empower refugees to continue
their learning and life journey.
The interactive session that followed allowed the participants to discuss the pitfalls and
opportunities in business-academia cooperation to tackle the humanitarian crisis of the Ukrainian
war in the Baltics. The workshop was successful in achieving its overall goal of helping participants
reconsider their own work and vision for promoting academic resilience in response to the Ukrainian
crisis in the Baltic region.
For more information, please contact Web2Learn at info@web2learn.eu