World Champion Austria Upper Austria
With full speed into the digital transformation Upper Austria is making huge investments to ensure the province retains its reputation as a top Central European business location.
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© Hermann Wakolbinger
he digital transformation has an impact on nearly all areas of life. It forms the basis for the further development of the latest technologies and is thus setting the course for the Upper Austrian economy and industry. Upper Austria’s business and research strategy #upperVISION2030 focuses on the creation of knowledge and added value using data as well as using the innovation potential of new technologies. Within the framework of this programme, around 4.8 million euros will be allocated to the “Digital Transformation” funding call. Research & development projects that support the advancement of digital solutions in companies as well as the
Upper Austria‘s Regional Councillor for Economic Affairs and Research Markus Achleitner.
transfer of innovation from science to industry are also being funded. The Covid pandemic as a digitisation accelerator “The pandemic has accelerated digital transformation. Now we must strengthen the digital know-how of domestic companies to make them fit for the future and also further strengthen their competitiveness. A recent location study by Teodoro Cocca (Professor for Asset Management at the Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria) has shown among other things that as a reaction to the Covid pandemic Europe’s leading industrial regions are placing specific emphasis and efforts on the area of digitisation. Pushing forward with the digitisation of domestic businesses, particularly SMEs, is also a clear mandate for Upper Austria. After all, we have a clear goal, we want to position ourselves amongst the top regions in Europe,” explains Upper Austria’s Regional Councillor for Economic Affairs and Research, Markus Achleitner. “With our current funding call ‘Digital Transformation’ we want to give an additional boost to the digitisation of Upper Austrian companies. In order to achieve this, we are investing around 4.8 million euros of state funding,” Achleitner announces. Increasing the level of digitisation “In order to secure Upper Austria as a business, industrial and research location and to maintain its international competitiveness, we have to continue to drive innovation in the development of products, processes, services and technologies,” he says. Digitisation has a special role to play: “One thing we have witnessed during the pandemic in particular is that companies with an advanced level of digitisation have a better resilience to crises, achieve higher revenue, employee and productivity growth, and make more investments”, Achleitner emphasises. The core competences and key technologies at the business and research loca-
