Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020

Fig. 1-28: Collaboration between companies and higher education institutions on research and development, 2019
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
NL
D
FI
N
DE
U
GB
R
SW
E
IR
L
BE
L
LU
X
AU
T
DN
K
FR
A
PR
T
Ø 
EU
-2
8
LT
U
CZ
E
IT
A
M
LT
SV
N
ES
T
HU
N
ES
P
BG
R
CY
P
RO
U
LV
A
SV
K
PO
L
HR
V
GR
C
US
A
CH
E
CA
N
CH
N
ZA
F
AU
S
BR
A
EU Member States
Reference countries
Weighted average
Source: World Economic Forum (2020a). Graphic: iit.

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56
Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020
inputs and outputs – in research and development, 
with regard to digitalisation and its innovation capa-
bility. It revealed that Austria lies within the upper 
midfield range compared with the rest of Europe in 
terms of its research and development performance, 
which were analysed based on publication output 
and number of patent applications.
Austria is in a midfield position for digitalisation 
overall, although a more nuanced assessment indi-
cates areas in which it is stronger and weaker. One of 
the country’s particular strengths lies in the digital 
skills of its population, while the availability of infor-
mation and communication technologies is also rela-
tively high in an international comparison. There is 
potential for Austria to improve in terms of the use of 
information and communication technologies by its 
private households and the use of big data and cloud 
services by its companies, both areas in which it lags 
behind the international average.
This chapter also examined Austria’s competitive-
ness and innovation capability. Its competitiveness 
was analysed based on the Global Competitiveness 
Report. An evaluation of this report shows that 
Austria performs very well in all dimensions exam-
ined – including in terms of technological maturity, 
political and economic circumstances and the qualifi-
cation of people – and is better positioned in these 
areas than the average of the 28 EU countries. 
Austria also achieves good to very good results in 
the analysis of innovation capability. According to 
the indicators evaluated, the Austrian economy is in 
a position to generate complex products and pro-
cesses and to establish them on a global market, the 
population is well educated, and firms cooperate rel-
atively often with higher education and research in-
stitutions in an international comparison.
Fig. 1-29 summarises the international indicators 
assessed in this section. As the individual bench-
marks use different scales, they have been stan-
dardised for the purposes of this figure so that each 
now ranges from 0 to 1. The RTI indicators studied in 
Section 1.2.1 are shown in red, the digitalisation indi-
cators from section 1.2.2 in blue and the innovation 
capability indicators from Section 1.2.3 in grey. The