THE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT (R&D) sector plays specific roles at different stages of development of society. For convenience, we may consider five main external aspects (or functions) of science and technology (S&T) activity: economic, organisational, educational, cultural and political. In the changing societies in Central and Eastern Europe (GEE) the content of these aspects of R&D, and the interconnections between the functions, are changing dramatically. In every CEE country the process of transformation has its own features, and is generally speaking unique. But at the same time there are similarities in structure, and in the role of S&T in these countries, which open the way to fruitful comparisons, and permit,generalisation and theoretical explanation of the pattern of events. Ukraine is one of the biggest countries in Europe, and gained its independence as recently as 1991. Independence brought changes in institutional and economic environment and distribution of power in the country. We will consider the impact of these changes on S&T and the role of S&T in the transformation.
