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On April 15–16, 2026, Olena Lukachuk, Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science and International Relations, participated in the X International Scientific Conference “Prospects for the Development of Entrepreneurship from a Global Perspective”, held online via MS Teams and hosted by the University of Lodz, Poland.

The conference was organized by the Faculty of Management and the Entrepreneurship Center at the University of Lodz, in partnership with the M. Dolishniy Institute of Regional Research of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Ege University (Turkey), Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University, Siauliai University of Applied Sciences (Lithuania), the International Strategic Management Association ISMA (Greece), and others.

Now in its tenth year, the conference brings together entrepreneurship researchers from across the world. This year’s event drew scholars from Poland, Ukraine, Ireland, Greece, Turkey, Lithuania, Latvia, and beyond. The range of partner institutions reflects a broader trend: building inclusive research networks that cross regional boundaries. For Ukrainian universities, participation in forums like this is a meaningful step toward academic European integration — particularly as the Ukrainian research community works to maintain an international presence despite wartime conditions.

Two keynote lectures opened the academic program. Prof. Kathryn Cormican of the University of Galway presented a vision of entrepreneurship as a design process — human-centred, collaborative, and iterative. Prof. Julita Wasilczuk of Gdansk University of Technology challenged the field to look beyond success stories and engage more seriously with the difficult, contradictory dimensions of entrepreneurial experience.

Nine parallel sessions covered a wide range of topics: entrepreneurial education, digital transformation and AI, ESG strategies, business resilience under uncertainty, Ukraine’s wartime economic recovery, social entrepreneurship, and international project cooperation. Ukrainian scholars participated across multiple sessions, reinforcing that Ukraine's reconstruction and transformation are not peripheral concerns — they are part of the global research agenda.

Olena Lukachuk presented two papers, each reflecting a distinct strand of her research: innovation management and international cooperation under crisis conditions.

Her first paper “I Built the Wings and They Forgot Who Did: The Empowerment Trap in Student Innovation Management” was presented in Session 5, “Projects in Action: Innovation, Inclusion, and Responsible Entrepreneurship”. The paper addresses a problem that rarely receives direct academic attention: the invisibility of student authorship in university innovation initiatives.

The research draws on real experience. In 2022 — the first year of Russia’s full-scale invasion Olena Lukachuk founded a Student Innovation Hub at the Department of Political Science and International Relations at ����APP. Sixteen first-year students completed 118 hours of structured engagement, submitted five project applications, visited seven institutions, secured five internships, and participated in two international learning events. By any measure, these were substantial results for eighteen-year-olds working in wartime. Then the group dissolved.

That moment became the starting point for the paper’s central concept: the empowerment trap. The better the scaffolding works, the less visible the mentor becomes. Students gain confidence and begin to attribute their success entirely to themselves not out of ingratitude, but because of a structural dynamic: confidence grows faster than the capacity to understand the conditions that made that growth possible. The simpler narrative “you did this yourself” wins over the more complex truth of the support architecture behind it.

The paper’s response is not softer mentorship, but more honest design: explicit scaffolding rather than implicit, process awareness rather than outcome focus, attribution by design rather than attribution by default. Notably, the Innovation Hub is being relaunched rebuilt around these findings. The paper turns personal experience into a scholarly contribution: not a success story, but a documented structural vulnerability that concerns anyone who genuinely tries to develop a team. This topic resonated internationally. Questions of intellectual ownership, recognition of contribution, and ethics in innovation management are actively debated in universities across many countries. A Ukrainian case study became an entry point into a global conversation.

Her second paper “From Recovery to Relations: Managing Ukrainian Rehabilitation Centers as Hubs of Global Cooperation”  opened Session 8, “Innovation, Recovery, and Intersectoral Cooperation in Economies Under Pressure”. The paper reframes how we understand Ukrainian rehabilitation centers. Most research treats them as medical or social institutions. Lukachuk analyzes them as organizational structures that, under wartime conditions, can function as nodes of knowledge exchange, solidarity, and sustained international partnership. The central question is deliberately provocative: are Ukrainian rehabilitation centers positioned to capture international attention strategically, or are they simply receiving donations while missing broader opportunities? The qualitative study combining case analysis, expert interviews, and document review produced a clear answer. Centers that function as genuine cooperation hubs share four organizational characteristics: dedicated international liaison capacity, transparent governance structures, multidisciplinary teams, and strategic communication aimed at foreign audiences.

The benefits of international engagement are concrete. Centers with active foreign partnerships reported greater resource mobilization, faster adoption of evidence-based rehabilitation practices, and notably enhanced institutional legitimacy within Ukraine’s own healthcare system. Having foreign partners made these centers more respected at home. Based on these findings, the paper proposes a four-stage framework for center managers: define your international value proposition, map potential partners systematically, formalize partnership protocols, and invest in relationship management over time. A key emphasis: Ukraine has accumulated expertise that no other country in the world possesses. That is an asset, not just a need. This reframing from recovery to relations carries strategic weight in the context of European integration. Rehabilitation centers with strong international networks will be better positioned to adopt EU standards and access structural funding.

Both papers stood out for combining rigorous analysis with concrete Ukrainian experience grounded in data and organizational reality, without declarative rhetoric.

In addition to presenting her own research, Lukachuk served as co-moderator of Session 7, “Entrepreneurship in Action: Ecosystems, Institutions & Organisational Practice”, alongside Assoc. Prof. Tomasz Rachwal of Cracow University of Economics. The session brought together papers on entrepreneurial ecosystem governance, corporate entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, feminist labor economics, greenhouse gas emissions trading in Ukraine, and student perceptions of entrepreneurial activity. Moderating at this level requires more than organizational skill — it demands broad subject knowledge and fluency in international academic dialogue across different research traditions.

Participation in the X International Scientific Conference at the University of Lodz reflects the active international engagement of the Department of Political Science and International Relations at ����APP. Two independent papers and a moderator role represent genuine presence in global academic dialogue — not passive attendance, but active contribution to shaping the research agenda.

As Ukraine’s academic European integration gains strategic importance, this kind of participation serves multiple purposes. It raises the visibility of Ukrainian universities — and ����APP specifically — within international research networks. It builds lasting partnerships that can anchor future joint projects, publications, and grant applications. And it demonstrates that Ukrainian scholarship continues to develop and compete, even under wartime conditions. The topics Olena Lukachuk brought to Lodz from student innovation management to the international role of rehabilitation centers reflect the department's capacity to connect theoretical analysis with the practical questions facing Ukraine and the world today.