In May 2023, online courses on Microscopy and Instrumental Methods in Biology and Tools for improving teaching and outreach in life sciences began as part of a project to support Ukrainian biology students was developed at the initiative of Professor Olga Garaschuk, Director of the Institute of Physiology of the University of Tübingen (Germany), and with the participation of her long-time colleague Professor Volodymyr Lushchak, Head of the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology of Vasyl Stefanyk Prykarpattia National University, with the financial support of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
More than 150 participants from different regions of Ukraine registered for the courses. Most of those willing to take the courses are from the universities of Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv, and Ivano-Frankivsk. There are also students from Uman, Kherson, Odesa and Khmelnytskyi universities, in total, students from 20 universities registered for the Microscopy and Instrumental Methods in Biology course and from 13 universities for the Tools for improving teaching and outreach in life sciences.
45% of students from the main groups most affected by the war and who successfully pass the course exam will be able to receive financial support in the form of a scholarship: 27 scholarships of 400 Euros from the Microscopy and Instrumental Methods in Biology course and 20 scholarships of 200 Euros from the Tools for improving teaching and outreach in life sciences. This is tangible financial support for Ukrainian students in wartime conditions, considering the fact that many of them were forced to move from their native homes and do not have the opportunity to fully attend classes at the university.