Higher Education Institutions of Ukraine in the National Ecosystem for Supporting Youth Startups
The aim of the article is to determine the main guidelines for the movement of startups in Ukraine as well as to study and assess the existing experience of working with international organizations whose activities are aimed at developing youth entrepreneurship and national higher education institutions (universities) to improve and deepen the cooperation. The essence of a startup is disclosed in the article, various definitions of the term “startup” are considered, the main trends in the development of the startup movement in Ukraine in general and youth entrepreneurship in particular are highlighted. Furthermore, the authoritative Global Startup Ecosystem Ranking is analyzed, and its evaluation criteria are given; the ranking of countries in terms of the number of startups and the Global Innovation Index is considered. Famous Ukrainian startups are studied, and their brief description is provided for a clearer understanding. The foreign experience in building ecosystem infrastructure, in particular, the experience of Singapore and Beijing, is reviewed. In addition, the national ecosystem for supporting youth start-ups in Ukraine and its main areas are analyzed. Moreover, the most important ecosystem projects are described, and their essence is determined. Examples of effective interaction between Ukrainian universities and international business incubators are given, in particular, the activities of the Innovative Ecosystem Sikorsky Challenge, a program aimed to support innovations and startups, at universities, and the positive experience of cooperation in the development of youth startups between the network of international academic business incubators YEP and the Faculty of Economics of V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University is presented. The main activities of the business incubator, the history of its functioning are studied, and the opportunities that students receive while working with YEP in each of the presented directions are described.