The development of an online course for UCF experts is nearing completion

Within the framework of the partnership and cooperation agreement between the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation and the Ukrainian Catholic University and with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation, the development of an online training course for the certification of experts of expert councils is being completed. During winter of 2020-2021, a series of meetings between the UCU development team and key UCF specialists took place to discuss the design and content of the course.

During these discussions, the educational expertise of the UCU Department of Cultural Studies was supported by the experience of leading UCF staff members familiar with the practical problems and nuances of the project submission and evaluation process. The joint work was based on the understanding and desire of both parties to consider in detail the needs and difficulties of the expert community and the Foundation as an institution as well as on efforts to facilitate productive cooperation between elements of this ecosystem, taking into account the experience of previous iterations of the grant competition.

The discussions focused on the importance of the expert and expert knowledge, ethical and legal aspects in the process of evaluating grant applications and ways to solve them, public communication, basic issues of project management. The overarching leitmotif of the discussions was the need to create a holistic environment where cultural actors (applicants), UCF and experts will be able to work together, embodying the Foundation's tasks - promoting Ukrainian culture and supporting cultural diversity, integrating Ukrainian culture into the world cultural space.

Methodical elaboration of details at this stage of  development will allow this online course to become a universal tool for training experts, a source of information and support in fulfilling their mission. The first iteration of the training course "Think and act as an expert" is scheduled for May-June 2021.

The material was prepared with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation within the project "Development of an online training course for certification of experts of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation." The material reflects the position of the authors and does not necessarily coincide with the position of the International Renaissance Foundation