Financing Governance for Integrating European and Ukrainian Defence-Tech Startups into EU Value Chains

This research project is carried out by Ihor Masiakin, a Department of Political Science CEU alumnus, with the support of the Central European University Foundation of Budapest (CEU Foundation). The project is supervised by Prof. Dr. Renata Uitz, Senior Research Fellow at the CEU Democracy Institute, and Prof. Inna Melnykovska of the European University Institute, in cooperation with other researchers of the EU Enlargement Hub.

Running from October 2025 to February 2026, the project explores how Ukrainian defence-tech startups can integrate into European value chains. It does so by analysing both the structure of Ukraine’s innovation ecosystem and the financial governance mechanisms available in the EU.

The study situates Ukraine’s defence-tech ecosystem within the wider transformation of Europe’s military-industrial landscape following Russia’s full-scale invasion. It examines how emerging instruments—such as NATO DIANA’s accelerator, BraveTech EU, the European Investment Bank’s Security & Defence Facility, and national development banks in the EU—are reshaping financing and procurement while learning directly from Ukrainian battlefield innovations in drones, cyber, and electronic warfare.

For policymakers, this research is significant because Ukraine demonstrates how agile governance, startup-driven innovation, and flexible financing can accelerate capability development—lessons that are critical for the EU as it develops its new defence-industrial policy.

For the academic community, the project contributes to debates on the entrepreneurial state and mission-oriented industrial policy. It tests how grants, guarantees, and procurement can crowd in private finance while safeguarding competition, interoperability, and compliance.

The results of this research will be presented within the framework of the Ukrainian Recovery Conference, providing policymakers and scholars with insights into how to design ecosystems that reward innovation and ensure Europe’s security-industrial resilience.