Open appeal of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation’s team

Given the attempts of discreditation and increased attention from the civil society and the media to the activities of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation, we consider it necessary to emphasize the following.

The UCF operates using new, progressive approaches, demonstrating transparency, openness and publicity. We would like to remind that since March 2018 we have started work on the preparation of competitions for art and cultural projects together with representatives of the cultural community from all over Ukraine. Joint efforts were made on establishing criteria of competitive projects’ selection and areas of competitions in the course of two strategic sessions, attended by around 150 experts in the field of culture, .

Understanding the degree of distrust of the Ukrainian society to state bodies involved in the distribution of public funds, UCF's influence on decisions taken by experts was made maximally impossible .

On April 24, we announced an open competition of experts. Everyone with relevant experience in one of the eight cultural sectors was encouraged to submit CV to the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation. The contest lasted until May 18 and 40 experts were expected to be chosen.

During this time, UCF received 281 applications, 172 of them passed the technical selection. 40 independent experts were selected through the "blind draw" with the participation of the EU Delegation in Ukraine and representatives of the Ukrainian media. 8 expert councils were formed that included three main and two stand-by experts. Among those experts who did not pass "blind draw", we formed a reserve expert base with their consent. In the course of work, 5 members of expert councils withdrew and completely refused to evaluate project in 2018. Also, 49 applications for conflict of interest were received during the evaluation of project applications. In this regard, the Directorate of the Foundation decided to use the online draw system using the random.ua. In total, 59 experts evaluated the projects.

After the formation of expert councils, the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation began experts’ training on evaluating project applications in accordance with the developed methodology. The main emphasis was on such criteria as "Impact of the project on the development of the cultural environment in the country ", "Promotion and sustainability of project results" and "Budget quality and cost effectiveness".

In July 2018, application process completed and projects’ evaluation began. 716 project applications were received in total. In mid-July, specialists of the Foundation formed list of projects that passed technical selection: 439 out of 593 individual projects, 65 out of 100 projects of national cooperation, 18 out of 23 international cooperation projects. In total, 522 applications were submitted for evaluation to the expert councils.

On August 14, the Coordination Meeting of the UCF Directorate with representatives of the expert councils and the Supervisory Board took place. In the course of this meeting, projects that passed the 70-point expert threshold were presented and comments were made to them. The UCF's Directorate has responded promptly to expert suggestions and has worked with each potential grant recipient to remove all of the problems. As a result, the budgets of many projects have been adjusted, some of them - substantially, as those that do not correspond to market prices or budget laws of Ukraine.

In total, 380 project applications have overcome the 70-point threshold: 315 individual projects, 49 national cooperation projects and 16 international cooperation projects. After the negotiated procedures, 298 winning projects received funding. 148 million 771 thousand 817 UAH. 59 kopecks - the total amount for which the Fund will support projects in 2018. At the moment active phase of projects’ implementation takes place.

Whereas the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation is undergoing the process of its formation as a newly formed structure, we constantly work on improving the documentation of the Foundation's contests.

Once again, we emphasize that our team is always open to constructive cooperation with all those interested in working with us to make the UFC a more qualitative, productive and effective instrument for the cultural development of Ukraine.

We are waiting for substantial offers via mail [email protected] until November 19, 2018.

At the end of 2018, UCF will hold Closing Conference 2018 where public report will be presented as well next contests of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation will be announced for 2019.