World Champion Austria Smart Region
Smart Specialisation Mechatronics, plastics, internationalisation – many of today’s successful initiatives in the Upper Austrian economic and research policy started out as an idea in a strategic programme.
Cluster. Including various net Since 1998, Upper Austria has works, another eleven followed used a strategic policy for ecosuit with the IT Cluster being the nomics and research. At the molatest to come to life in 2013. Right ment, the fourth programme “Innow, the province is switching its novative Upper Austria 2020” is in attention to initiatives across place. It focuses strongly on the sectors and thus across clusters: principles of smart specialisation Upper Austria is facing the future and covers the areas of industrial with topics such as connected production processes, mobility & logistics, health & an aging socie- Werner Pamminger (MD at Business Upper Austria), Angelika Sery-Froschauer mobility, lightweight construc(VP at the Upper Austrian Economic Chamber), Dominique Foray (Swiss Fedetion, smart plastics, generative ty, food & diet as well as energy. ral Institute of Technology in Lausanne), Provincial MP for Economic Affairs In 2015, the strategic pro- Michael Strugl, Axel Greiner (President at the Federation of Austrian Industries) production and MedTech meets IT. On top of that, there is digitalisagramme implemented about 1,500 tion: IT is a key technology for the future of any business location. projects with a total volume of more than 360 million euros. In this area, Upper Austria as a traditionally strong production Among them is the Platform Industry 4.0, the development of the location has bet early on smart production and can use its MedTech location Upper Austria, business parks all over the strengths in mechanical engineering and mechatronics in order province, a funding project for smart mobility, the Upper Austrian to come out of this transformation process even stronger. founder strategy and the initiative Service Innovation. All these Innovative services have a huge potential for the capital goods measures have one common goal: Making Upper Austria one of sector in particular: Studies show, that in future services will the leading industrial regions in Europe by being a technological account for at least one third of business. The programme “Innoleader. Pooling the resources in the fields of economy, education vative Upper Austria 2020” focuses on new production systems and research in the sense of smart specialisation creates a strain connection with new knowledge-based services as part of its tegic competitive advantage that sets Upper Austria apart from core strategies. other regions. Linking up and digitalising businesses and regions The example of business clusters shows the long-term development when it comes to the economic strengths of Upper Austria: The first cluster to be founded in 1998 was the Automobile
More innovation thanks to a clearer focus Upper Austria’s regional innovative capacity is excellent: There are numerous measures that support businesses in their quest for innovation, e.g. through the clusters and other innovative