R&D Expenditure
According to estimates by Statistik Austria, Austria will spend altogether € 7,652 thousand million on R&D in 2009. With this, the country’s R&D rate is rising from 2.66 percent in 2008 to 2.73 percent of GDP in 2009.
R&D spending of the public sector has increased by about 9 percent. Due to the economic crisis the investments in R&D of the corporate sector have significantly decreased.
From the total R&D expenditure 17 percent are spent for basic research, 35 percent for applied research and 47 percent for experimental development.
COMET - Competence Centers for Excellent Technologies
The competence centres programmes launched in 1998 are among the most successful technology policy initiatives in Austria. Today, some 1,500 researchers from science and industry work on jointly defined research programmes at more than 40 centres. The programmes are internationally recognised as Best-Practice models. Building on these experiences the programme COMET - Competence Centres for Excellent Technologies has been launched.
Competence Centers for Excellent Technologies (COMET) is the competence centre programme established in 2007, which aims to intensify and concentrate cooperation between science and industry. By establishing and exploiting joint research expertise, Austrian companies will be able to expand and secure their technological leadership, strengthening Austria as a research location. The programme’s most ambitious task is to support research programmes of international excellence and to encourage the involvement of companies and scientists operating world-wide.
COMET is operated by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT) and the Federal Ministry of Economy, Family and Youth (BMWFJ).
Programme lines
The programme consists of the three lines "K1-Centres”, K2-Centres” and "K-Projects”. The lines differ according to their international visibility, volume of project and duration.
K2 centres are characterised by outstanding research programs corresponding to high risks in development and implementation. High international visibility and international networks mark K2 centres. K1 centres implement top-level research with a focus on scientific and technological developments to qualify for the markets of the future.
Focus and target groups
The programme addresses existing competence centres and networks, as well as new consortia with participants from science and industry. All three programme lines are thematically open. However, every centre must have a jointly defined research topic.
Evaluation
The selection of centres (K1 and K2) is based on two-stage, criteria-based selection process. K-Projects are selected in a single step. The applications are evaluated and selected according to defined quality criteria in a competitive process by a jury consisting of internal and external experts.
The funded centres will be evaluated several times during their funding period. All evaluations will be undertaken on the basis of the defined quality criteria for the different programme lines (see Programme document COMET).
Ex-ante evaluation | Review | Mid-term Evaluation | Ex-post Evaluation
Results
Since 2007 two calls for centres (K1 and K2) and three calls for
K-Projects have been accomplished. The amount of federal funding for the first funding period of the 21 centres and 25 projects approved is about 220 million Euro.
The centres & projects established between 2008 and 2010 are listed on this website (5 K2-Centres | 16 K1-Centres | 25 K-Projects).