The Brave1 defense cluster may be transferred under the management of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine — a corresponding decision is currently being discussed at the government level.
The Brave1 defense cluster may be transferred under the management of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine — a corresponding decision is currently being discussed at the government level.
This was stated by Acting Minister of Digital Transformation Oleksandr Bornyakov during the Business Breakfast from Forbes Ukraine.
According to him, the transfer of the defense track looks logical given the role of the Ministry of Defense in the ecosystem. «We are gradually transferring the defense track to the Ministry of Defense. The Ministry of Defense has, in my opinion, the strongest team of all time. We are ready to transfer to them everything related to defense innovations,» Bornyakov noted.
Currently, the cluster formally remains under the coordination of the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, however, according to the official, a decision on the transition may be made in the near future. «I think that a decision will be made to transfer it to the Ministry of Defense,» he added.
As a reminder, as of now, Brave1 unites about 2,500 companies working on more than 5,000 developments in the field of defense technologies. In fact, this is no longer a separate initiative, but an established ecosystem, which, according to the government’s logic, it is advisable to integrate closer to the final customer — the military.
The cluster was created at the initiative of the Ministry of Digital Affairs in cooperation with the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the Ministry for Strategic Industries of Ukraine, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, and the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.
In addition to coordinating developers, the platform also performs applied functions: it helps companies gain access to state and direct procurement from military units, and distributes grant funding. The total amount of grants issued has already exceeded $50 million, and the maximum size of one grant reaches UAH 8 million — depending on the stage of product readiness.
