Abstract for: Learning Economics with Dynamic Modeling in Ukraine, in Collaboration with Norway

In our presentation, we will discuss how our project became self-sustaining despite war and a pandemic. Now in our tenth year of collaboration, the University of Bergen in Norway (UiB), the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (NaUKMA), and Ivan Franko Lviv National University (LNU) work together to build dynamic modeling capacity at NaUKMA and LNU and provide practical assistance to government ministries, the central bank, and schools in Ukraine. Funded by the Foreign Ministry of Norway through the Norwegian Directorate of Higher Education and Skills, we have trained hundreds of students and young professors in system dynamics modeling of economic systems in five courses created in Kyiv, Lviv, and Bergen. We have established a joint PhD degree program at NaUKMA and UiB, plus a Center of Excellence devoted to dynamic modeling of economic systems. Extending our impact beyond the university classrooms, we also conduct seminars, workshops, and collaborative modeling and teaching projects with economists at the National Bank of Ukraine, secondary STEM teachers and their students in Kyiv and Lviv and, most recently, two ministries responsible for economic recovery and development. We began our journey as colleagues with a shared vision and, along the way, became the best of friends.