INDUSTRY & TECHNOLOGY
Money for new ideas And there are plenty of ideas about, in Austria for example. An everyday occurrence that many people are familiar with: you are out and about when your mobile cuts out in the middle of a phone call. The battery is flat. Wouldn’t it be convenient to be able to recharge the battery immediately and continue your conversation? The Graz company SunnyBAG has invented a laptop bag that enables just this, because it is fitted with solar panels and can convert sunlight into electricity. Carry the bag and you can charge your smartphone or tablet any time, anywhere. SunnyBAG is now setting its sights on the US market – possibly with the help of EU funding. The Styrian start-up company has been helped towards success by several small investors and the start-up fund of the national development bank Austria Wirtschaftsservice (aws), which has taken a shareholding. This year too the development bank is coming to the financial aid of small and mediumsized business in Austria and helping young companies to stand on their own two feet. There is around a billion euros available for this, with 100 million euros reserved for start-ups. At +1.7 per cent, Austria’s growth forecast for 2014 is distinctly higher than the growth in 2013 of +0.3 per cent. The minister for science and the economy, Reinhold Mitterlehner, thus also wants to generate a reversal of the trend in investments, on the one hand by providing companies with more funding and on the other hand by encouraging them to become more involved in EU projects. If industry and SMEs want to safeguard their locations, they need to make more fixed investments, create more jobs and above all carry out more R&D. But because the tighter credit checks under Basel III make it especially hard for small and new, innovative companies to get the money they need for investment from the banks, aws is increasing its available funding by six per cent to EUR 973 million in total, which will cover around ten per cent of the market. Mitterlehner expects this to result in “investments of EUR 2.5 billion”, which
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EUR 1.5 bn. back. “Every euro that is invested in innovation creates many times more than this in growth and jobs in the long term”, he emphasised at the launch event for “Horizon 2020” in Vienna at the end of January. He added that the programme reproduces the entire innovation cycle, from the basic science through to corporate research, which is also the goal of domestic research policy. The increase will be achieved amongst other things with two new specific measures. Thus the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG), which provided advice to 40,000 research establishments, universities and companies during the now expired 7th framework programme, will get involved even earlier and will provide help before the application is submitted. In this way research niches will be spotted in good time and existing potential will be bundled and maximised. For SMEs in particular, up to now getting a share of EU research pots has been much too time-consuming. And in order to analyse current European developments in Austria as promptly as possible and ensure the highest possible rates of return, Mitterlehner has founded a new advisory body with high-ranking staff to identify the funding niches available to businesses. The “ERA (European Research Area) Council Forum Austria” is led by the former President of the European Research Council (ERC), Helga Nowotny. So if SunnyBAG should also want to develop solar mobile phone cases, they could turn to this Forum as a way of accessing the EU funding in this respect. Eva Stanzl ■
»JEDER EURO, DER IN INNOVATIONEN INVESTIERT WIRD, SCHAFFT EIN VIELFACHES AN WACHSTUM UND ARBEITSPLÄTZEN« »EVERY EURO THAT IS INVESTED IN INNOVATION CREATES MANY TIMES MORE THAN THIS IN GROWTH AND JOBS«
Horizon 2020 will strengthen SMEs 43.9 per cent of Austrian research expenditure (out of EUR 8.96 bn. in 2013) currently comes from companies. Mitterlehner now wants to achieve higher participation in the new EU research framework programme “Horizon 2020”, and by SMEs in particular. EUR 1 bn. flowed into Austria from the 7th research framework programme, which ran until the end of 2013, corresponding to a 125 per cent rate of return. 19 per cent of applicants were small and medium-sized businesses. This time Mitterlehner wants to get
Auf einen Blick At a glance • Horizon 2020 ist das weltweit größte transnationale Programm für Forschung und Innovation. • Laufzeit: 2014-2020. • Budget: knapp 80 Milliarden Euro. • Horizon bildet einen gemeinsamen Rahmen für drei Herausforderungen bzw. Ziele: - Wissenschaftliche Exzellenz - Wettbewerbsfähigkeit und Marktführerschaft - Große gesellschaftliche Herausforderungen • Attraktive Förderhöhen, stark vereinfachtes Regelwerk: Die Förderquote für „Forschungs- und Innovationsmaßnahmen“ beträgt 100% der gesamten erstattungsfähigen Projektkosten (direkte und indirekte Kosten). Die Förderquote für „Innovationsmaßnahmen“ beträgt grundsätzlich 70% der gesamten erstattungsfähigen Projektkosten (100% für gemeinnützige Organisationen). Für die indirekten Kosten gibt es eine einheitliche Pauschale von 25% der direkten erstattungsfähigen Kosten (auch für die Pauschale gilt die Förderquote von 70 bzw. 100%). • Horizon 2020 unterstützt erstmals alle Phasen des Innovationsprozesses und integriert drei bisher getrennte Programme (7. RP, Teile von CIP, EIT). • Horizon 2020 is the largest transnational research and innovation programme in the world • Term: 2014-2020 • Budget: just under EUR 80 billion • Horizon forms a shared framework for three challenges or objectives: - Scientific excellence - Competitiveness and market leadership - Major social challenges • Attractive funding sums, greatly simplified regulations The funding ratio for “research and innovation measures” is 100% of the total reimbursable project costs (direct and indirect costs). The funding ratio for “innovation measures” is 70% of the total reimbursable project costs in principle (100% for charitable organisations). For indirect costs there is a uniform flat rate figure of 25 per cent of the direct reimbursable costs (this fixed rate too is subject to the funding ration of 70 or 100%). • For the first time, Horizon 2020 supports all the phases of the innovation process and integrates three programmes that were formerly separate (7th FP, parts of the CIP, EIT).
Fotos: Getty Images
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xcellent research, highly competitive research centres and corporate locations, more innovative products and services and a simplified regulatory framework: these are the most important objectives for “Horizon 2020”. Just under EUR 80 bn. is available at EU level for research and innovation between 2014 and 2020. The forms of finance and grants range from basic research to product development. The central target groups are individual researchers, companies and cooperations between science and industry. European companies are also being called on and invited to obtain more money from the EU.
according to the development bank should safeguard 62,000 existing jobs and create 7,400 new ones. But the aim of the increased funding is not just to increase the number of company founders, but also to benefit research and development, because companies like SunnyBAG in particular are amongst the innovative businesses that are undertaking research and want to invest in research and development in the future too. Precisely this fits with the objectives of the economy and science minister Mitterlehner. Companies need to spend more money on research in order to safeguard their location. Yet against the background of empty coffers and the major gaps in budgets that suddenly seem to occur, it seems unlikely that the Federal Government will achieve its strategic objective associated with this, namely increasing spending on research to 3.76 per cent of GDP by 2020. The hope that the resources needed for growth on this scale will largely come from private assets is regarded as unrealistic by many people involved in this area.
Quelle: www.ffg.at
war eine Teilnahme an den EU-Forschungstöpfen bis dato vielfach zu aufwendig. Und um aktuelle europäische Entwicklungen in Österreich möglichst zeitnah zu analysieren und um möglichst hohe Rückflüsse sicherzustellen, hat Mitterlehner ein neues, hochrangig besetztes Beratungsgremium gegründet, das Fördernischen für Betriebe erkennen soll. Das „ERA (European Research Area) Council Forum Austria“ steht unter Leitung der ehemaligen Präsidentin des Europäischen Forschungsrats (ERC) Helga Nowotny. Sollte SunnyBAG also auch SolarHandyhüllen entwickeln wollen, könnte sich die Firma an diese Adresse wenden, um an eine diesbezügliche EU-Förderung zu gelangen.
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