2026 Frankfurt Bookfair
The visit to the 2026 Frankfurt Bookfair for three delegates was sponsored by a crowdfunding initiative led by Peter Berkery at the Association on University Presses (AUP). The initiative has raised over $6,000 to date; any surplus will go towards reprinting the 13m books lost in recent Russian attacks. The delegates were:
• Dr. Volodymyr Netak, Director, Ukrainian Catholic University Press, Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU);
• Dr. Liudmyla Hanushchak-Yefimeko, Vice-Rector at Scientific and Innovative Activities at at the Kyiv National University of Technologies and Design;
• Dr. Yurii Havrylets, Associate Professor, Educational and Scientific Institute of Journalism, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv representing KNU's Publishing Coordination Centre.
Accompanying the delegates were Frances Pinter and Byron Russell.
The visit had the following main objectives:
1. Explore various potential partnerships, distribution deals, mentorship programmes
etc in order to get support for Ukrainian scientific and academic publishing from the
global publishing community.
2. Introduce the new Ukrainian Association of University Presses (UAUP) to future
partners and suggest how Ukrainian scholarly publishing might be presented through
the various channels.
3.Understand the complexities of global academic publishing ecosystem and how
publications out of Ukraine can best fit into this environment for maximum impact.
4. Develop thinking about further meetings and activities to promote the mission,
inside and outside of Ukraine.
Meetings were set up in advance with the following organisations:
Publishers: Berghahn; Springer; Taylor and Francis; DeGruyter; OUP.
Publishing Services: Longleaf; Annual Reviews / Charleston Library Convention; JSTOR; EBSCO; IPG; Ukraine Book Publishers Association; Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP); STM; KGL; Ingrams.
Industry Experts: Lynette Owen; Sven Fund; Ruediger Wischenbart; Angus Phillips.
In addition, all delegates and Frances attended the FBF Conference on University Press publishing.
Outcomes and Next Steps
The meetings were successful and everyone we met reiterated their unwavering support for Ukraine. Some financial support for SUPRR has so far been pledged by DeGruyter; Byron is arranging a meeting with T&F, which hopefully will bring in additional financial support. SSP have already been particularly helpful and have offered free places on their online “Journals Academy” (see below) and mentoring programme, with free places on the next cohort (Spring 2027).
There are ongoing copublishing / licencing discussions with OUP, Berghahn and Springer, and on a range of services (hosting, discovery, printing) with EBSCO, JSTOR and Ingrams.
