Target and performance agreement 2024 – 2026 concluded with Austrian Cooperative Research (ACR)
Wien (OTS/BMAW) – In times of growing challenges, promoting research and development as well as targeted investments play a crucial role in accelerating the transformation of the location. The shift towards a sustainable economy based on renewable energies and digitalized in all sectors is crucial to maintaining our competitiveness at international level, further expanding our positioning in key technologies and reducing strategic dependencies. Innovative companies play a significant role here, as they are not only more successful and resilient in the long term, but also contribute to the attractiveness of the location. “In order to attract more small and medium-sized companies to research and thus broaden and deepen the innovation base in Austria, we are providing the ACR (Austrian Cooperative Research) research network with additional budget funds from the transformation offensive. With the new target and performance agreement, the Association of ACR Institutes will receive five million euros annually from 2024 to 2026 for application-oriented research projects and networking,” said Labor and Economics Minister Martin Kocher in response to the signing of the contracts.
“Small and medium-sized companies are a central pillar of the Austrian economy. Making it easier for them to access research and development represents an important lever for increasing the innovation potential of the entire business location,” Iris Filzwieser, President of the ACR, is convinced. “The funding enables the ACR institutes to provide SMEs with specialized know-how and research infrastructure at the highest level as required,” emphasizes ACR managing director Sonja Sheikh.
Through cooperative research, innovation projects with business, know-how development and knowledge transfer, the ACR supports innovations by SMEs and thus expands the Austrian innovation base. Through joint research assignments, teaching assignments and the supervision of scientific work at universities and technical colleges, it acts as a crucial bridge between science and business. Through collaboration with large companies, SMEs and connections to industry, it also contributes to a sustainable and digital transformation of the economy. In 2022, more than 2,500 companies, mainly SMEs, took advantage of the support of an ACR institute.
“The transformation offensive can now be used to test new forms of cooperation and pave the way to the market for even more innovations from SMEs,” says Kocher.
About Austrian Cooperative Research (ACR)
ACR – Austrian Cooperative Research is a network of 19 non-profit research institutes that conduct research and development for companies. Its needs-oriented offering is aimed specifically at SMEs in order to introduce them to innovations or support them in their innovation efforts, to provide them with the necessary know-how and to strengthen their competitiveness. Her activities include, among other things, the development and bundling of specialized know-how and state-of-the-art research infrastructure, the implementation of commissioned projects and funded interdisciplinary strategic projects, as well as the provision of non-profit services for SMEs. Strategic objectives are pursued, which are regularly reviewed using performance indicators. Through close exchange and joint knowledge and technology development with SMEs, the ACR contributes to ensuring that innovation is also present in medium-sized companies and that technology transfer is promoted.
The ACR’s RDI focus areas are sustainable construction, environmental technology & renewable energies, products, processes & materials, food quality & safety, innovation & competitiveness and digitalization. In many of these areas, the ACR institutes also act as measuring, testing, consulting or certification bodies. In this way, their increase in knowledge also contributes to the development of Austria as an innovation and business location in standardization, for example.
Questions & Contact:
ACR – Austrian Cooperative Research
Mag. Rita Kremsner
public relation
+43/1/219 85 73-12
kremsner@acr.ac.at
Federal Ministry of Labor and Economy
Press Department – Economy
press.economy@bmaw.gv.at
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