“The Way to Become a Leader in Innovation” – Austria’s Government Presents its New Strategy in the Fields of Research, Technology and Innovation

The Austrian Government presented on 8 March 2011 its new strategy for research, technology and innovation (RTI). Austria’s declared goal is to move up from an “innovation follower” to the league of “innovation leaders” among the EU Member States. This ambitious objective links directly to the EU’s Innovation Scoreboard of 2010, which ranks Austria among the “innovation followers” (together with the UK, Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg, France, Cyprus, Slovenia and Estonia). Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Germany are currently the “innovation leaders” in Europe, according to the Scoreboard.

Alluding to this goal, the innovation strategy was given the title „The Way to Become a Leader in Innovation”. It was jointly presented in a press conference on 8 March 2011 by four ministers: Ms Beatrix Karl (Minister for Science and Research), Mr Reinhold Mitterlehner (Minister for Economic Affairs), Ms Doris Bures (Minister for Transport, Innovation and Technology), and Ms Claudia Schmied (Minister for Education, Arts and Culture). The joint presentation indicates the horizontal nature of innovation, cutting across ministerial boundaries – the objective can only be reached if all stakeholders (in education, research, industry and policy) cooperate.

The strategy document argues that Austria’s existing innovation system has been effective and successful for many years. The gap to the innovation leaders in Europe has narrowed. The existing strategy is described as an “imitating” one, focused on intelligent adoption and fast deployment. However, the Government observes “diminishing returns” from this strategy in recent years now that the basic catching-up process has been mostly accomplished. As the global competitive framework has changed, new requirements for innovation and technology are required in order to continue the successful path. Austria should aim to become a leader in innovation, rather than accepting its current position as a “follower”, recognising that other economies are now catching up fast in the same way Austria has done in the past 10-15 years.

Key challenges to be addressed

The innovation strategy specifies key challenges and opportunities for improvement in the following areas:

• Human resources: improving the links between the education to the innovation systems - Basic research: increasing public funding for basic research
• Risk capital: due to the dominant role of banks for financing enterprises in Austria, venture and risk capital is underdeveloped in Austria.
• Competition: the framework conditions for encouraging innovation activities can still be improved
• Governance: there are still weaknesses in the governance structures in Austria, which are an impediment for the development of the innovation system 
• Structural change: the government aims to encourage a more dynamic structural change towards research, innovation and knowledge-intensive industries 

To address these key challenges, the innovation strategy defines more specific targets and common principles that should be observed in addressing them, for instance to follow a systemic approach and not to rely entirely on (financial) funding schemes, but to pay due attention to legal and organisational framework conditions.

Action lines

The strategy specifies concrete targets and actions in five domains which are linked with the main challenges outlined above:

1. Encouraging and developing talent: a sustainable reorganisation of the education system
2. Creating knowledge and promoting excellence: strengthening the basics of the knowledge society
3. Exploiting knowledge and adding value: activating the potential of innovation  
4. Providing governance and defining frameworks: an efficient organisation of the political governance  
5. Creating incentives and options: broadening the financial basis  

One of the specific goals (linked to the fifth domain) is to increase research investments from currently 2.76% to 3.76% of GDP until 2020. At last two thirds of the total investments, preferably more than 70% shall come from the private sector. The public sector shall encourage this by improving the framework conditions for research and development.

References / further information:

• Austrian Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology: "Der Weg zum Innovation Leader - Bundesregierung präsentiert FTI-Strategie“. http://www.bmvit.gv.at/presse/archiv/0309fitstrategie.html 
• Potenziale ausschöpfen, Dynamik steigern, Zukunft schaffen. Der Weg zum Innovation Leader. Innovationsstrategie der Bundesregierung (March 2011). The new innovation strategy of the Austrian Government (in German language). PDF document, 5 MB

File Attachment: 

Potenziale ausschöpfen, Dynamik steigern, Zukunft schaffen. Der Weg zum Innovation Leader. Innovationsstrategie der Bundesregierung (March 2011). The new innovation strategy of the Austrian Government (in German language).