Summary
- Profile Type
- Research & Development Request
- POD Reference
- RDRAT20250409015
- Term of Validity
- 9 April 2025 - 9 April 2026
- Company's Country
- Austria
- Type of partnership
- Research and development cooperation agreement
- Targeted Countries
- All countries
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General information
- Short Summary
- The business promotion agency, based in southern Austria is interested in submitting a proposal for an upcoming Horizon Europe call with the aim of providing an overview of current funding handling systems used by various agencies. Systems involved in the awarding of funding should be reviewed to identify best practices in providing support to businesses. The Austrian agency seeks other funding agencies with expertise in EU funding programmes to join the consortium and to act as coordinator.
- Full Description
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The regional business development agency based in southern Austrian is wholly owned by the province and as such has strong ties with the local government on a policy level. The agency itself is an independent company with some 90 staff members tasked with implementing regional government strategy in order to fulfil the objectives of the local government departments and to devise the most suitable and effective measures to:
• strengthen and grow the regional economy
• support start-ups and scale-ups
• foster cooperation between science and industry
• create jobs in the region
• remain well networked with all the key stakeholders in the regional innovation ecosystem (including universities, research institutes, competence centres, incubation centres, clusters etc.)
Supporting individual regional companies by awarding public funding for their planned projects is the main expertise of the agency and significant experience has been gained in granting funds to companies from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as well as the newly established Just Transition Fund (JTF). The organisation also includes a finance team which supports innovative SMEs with silent partnership and venture capital instruments.
The region itself is a hotspot for healthtech, greentech and mobility and enjoys one of the highest R&D rates in the EU.
The agency is also the regional contact point for the Enterprise Europe Network and Horizon Europe and has significant business support experience on a regional, national and European level. To date the team has been involved in a number of Erasmus, Leonardo and Interreg projects and is currently active in a DeepTechValley project.
The new European innovation agenda provides for the strengthening of innovation systems and overcoming the innovation gap in the EU. Programmes such as the ERDF play a central role in promoting place-based innovation and stimulating investments that are tailored to the needs and opportunities of the regional economy. The Austrian agency wishes to investigate this topic and, as part of a work package, examine and compare the different priorities and funding instruments in programmes such as the ERDF in different regions.
The work package could also explore the differences between the focus topics set by various countries as well as differences in selecting target groups which benefit the most from the funding programmes. Additionally, the agency would like to consider the different processes involved in awarding funding on a technical level. Mastering the digital transformation is a challenge also for business promotion agencies and with this in mind, the Austrian organisation would like to elaborate on the topic by identifying the various systems currently in place and examining how technology can help to further facilitate the process for all stakeholders involved.
The project aims to promote exchange between agencies and to identify current challenges in the funding process. Project results will be used to improve the efficiency of future funding processing. Results will also be used to contribute to common knowledge assets as a basis to provide a mapping for further development towards a more efficient and diverse programme implementation.
The coordinator and other project partners should also be funding agencies with experience in granting funds, especially from the ERDF an JTF programmes. The target group should comprise a variety of clients across the quadruple helix to enhance the experience in dealing with funding of stakeholders apart from public authorities and industry. The Austrian organisation would like to join a consortium for an upcoming Horizon Interconnected Innovation Ecosystems Call (publication was expected in February 2025), similar to the Interconnected Innovation Ecosystems (2024.2) (HORIZON-EIE-2024-CONNECT-02) Call which closed in September 2024. - Sustainable Development Goals
- Not relevant
Partner Sought
- Expected Role of a Partner
- A project coordinator and other project partners are sought.
- Type and Size of Partner
- Other
- Type of partnership
- Research and development cooperation agreement
Call details
Dissemination
- Technology keywords
- 11004 - Technology, Society and Employment
- 11001 - Socio-economic models, economic aspects
- Market keywords
- 09003007 - Other services (not elsewhere classified)
- Targeted countries
- All countries