We are pleased to announce that our project Rapid Urban Re-Innovation (RURI), led by Innovation Leadership Group and its Ukrainian partner Ro3kvit, has been awarded funding from the Swedish Institute’s call SI Ukraine Cooperation Programme. 

The project is a training programme where a first cohort of 30 professional Ukrainian architects will be re-skilled and trained in sustainable urban design and recovery planning methods by Ukrainian and Swedish instructors.

The full project title is Rapid Urban Re-Innovation (RURI): Strategic Analysis and Participatory Urban Design Methods for Ukrainian Architects to Accelerate Sustainable Reconstruction. RURI starts in early 2025 and will run for 18 months until mid 2026. The training programme’s Ukrainian partner is Ro3kvit Urban Coalition for Ukraine. 

Ukraine is in immediate need of urban recovery. The main challenge that RURI is trying to address is the lack of Ukrainian urban designers skilled in methods that are evidence-based, multisectoral and collaborative. Hromadas (local communities) require professional counterparts to work with strategic spatial documents and integrated participatory design. At the same time a lot of architects are underemployed because of the war. Our training programme will re-skill architects to help the hromadas with urban recovery. 

– The “re-innovation” in the project title is about building back better. The word “rapid” in the title implies the need for citizens’ seeing some immediate results of urban recovery, to restore faith in the social contract, says Jan Rydén Bonmot, senior advisor at Innovation Leadership Group (ILG), who will lead the project. Architect Elin Strand Ruin, an expert on participatory methods, will also be part of the team from ILG, co-creating the training programme together with the team from Ro3kvit.

The training will focus on urban recovery design methods that are evidence-based, multisectoral and collaborative. The aim is to accelerate a recovery that is sustainable.

Training will take place in Ukraine, in hybrid format online and in Nizhyn Hromada, as well as in Stockholm, which the group of architects will visit in November 2025.

– Sweden has a lot to learn from the Ukrainian experience when it comes to rapidly adapting to changing circumstances and being innovative in times of need. This project strengthens ILG’s competence in taking on complex societal challenges and co-creating solutions across nations and sectors, says Klara Adolphson, CEO of Innovation Leadership group. 

If the RURI training programme proves successful, the idea is to seek additional funding to scale up the programme in the future.

Partners: Innovation Leadership Group AB, Ro3kvit Urban Coalition for Ukraine

Advisory board and stakeholders (non-partners): Nizhyn Municipality, Pehr Mikael Sällström, Biobo, Ryan Knox, SALAR International, Ulrika Liiv, Forever Sustainable, Björn Ekelund, Arkitekturinstitutet

Contact: Jan Rydén Bonmot, project manager, Senior advisor, ILG jan@innovationleadershipgroup.se

Contact Ro3kvit: Margo Didichenko, margo.didichenko@ro3kvit.com

Innovation Leadership Group (ILG) is an innovation agency established in 2021. ILG helps organisations co-create innovative solutions to complex problems. We are strategic advisors in innovation leadership and capability, we manage research projects, and we educate professionals.

Ro3kvit Urban Coalition for Ukraine NGO Ro3kvit is a coalition of over 100 professionals from Ukraine and beyond who unite to create knowledge and methodologies for rebuilding Ukraine’s urban and rural areas and infrastructure.