Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020

1. Current Trends
61
ute to European RTI policy, the number of companies 
that successfully secured participations was only 
186. Looking at the total amounts of funding ac-
quired, it is evident that the majority of funding is 
awarded to a comparatively small number of highly 
successful companies. In fact, the most successful 
Austrian company is involved in 57 projects. Overall 
64 All figures in this excursus come from a special analysis by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG), based on the reporting 
date of 15 December 2019 (completed on 1 April 2020).
more than 60% of the funding secured goes to the 
top 10 companies (see Fig. 1-32). Around 33%, i.e. ap-
proximately 180 Austrian companies, are involved in 
more than two successful H2020 projects.
Excursus: Highlights of participation by Austrian 
universities and research institutions in Horizon 
2020
Austria’s higher education institutions and non-uni-
versity research institutions are the other major play-
ers after the above-mentioned companies, as far as 
participation in Horizon 2020 is concerned, and in the 
acquisition of significant funding for research and de-
velopment. Higher education institutions have had a 
total of 939 participations, and acquired €497.6 mil-
lion in funding, with 786 (and €348.9 million) for 
non-university research institutions
64
. This means that 
2.5% of all European higher education participations 
are attributed to Austria, while Austrian non-universi-
ty research institutions attract 3.2% of the total for 
that sector. Within Austria the proportion acquired by 
higher education institutions is 27.9%, and by non-uni-
versity research institutions 23.4%. 
Fig. 1-31: Long-term trend in the success rates of Austrian companies in the EU’s RTI policy programmes
30.8%
29.4%
18.6%
23.3%
14.0%
26.3%
27.1%
17.0%
24.7%
18.1%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
FP4 (1994-1998)
FP5 (1998-2002)
FP6 (2002-2006)
FP7 (2007-2014)
H2020 (2014-2020)
Su
cc
es
s r
at
e i
n %
All states
Austria
Source: Evaluation of EU performance monitoring by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG)