Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020

 
Indicator 2: Quality assurance and evaluations 
Surveys of (potential) applicants and assisted companies:
A systematic study of customer satisfaction and service quality continually supplies valuable information 
on ways to improve the promotion provided by the Austria Wirtschaftsservice (aws) through organisation-
al, technical and thematic refinements. A feedback system for funded companies was developed in 2012 
on the basis of internal evaluations. This system is evaluated every six months by the Strategy/Evaluation 
team (aws-K-Feedback) as an integral component of the monitoring activities aimed at quality assurance. 
Random samples encompassing an average of 300 funded companies and 25 companies that were not 
funded are available for the semi-annual assessments. 

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Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020
Evaluations of the programmes and the portfolio:
The quality assurance measures naturally include evaluations. Evaluations are typically conducted by ex-
ternal teams in coordination with the programme owners and are often directly commissioned by them. 
The timing of these evaluations is based on the term of the programme, typically from two to five years, 
and is defined upon commissioning of the evaluation, within the assistance guidelines or in the programme 
documents. The programme documents contain detailed provisions on the type of evaluation, questions 
studied, indicators and methodology. 
To supplement external evaluations, the Austria Wirtschaftsservice (aws) also conducts internal evalu-
ations, where specific needs of the entities commissioning the programmes are taken into account – par-
ticularly with regard to the design or redesign of guidelines and programme documents. If evaluations are 
carried out internally, they serve primarily to improve the internal information base concerning the pro-
gramme portfolio as well as current evaluation questions and therefore function largely as supplements to 
external programme evaluations as well as to monitoring activities based on assessments of application 
data. The following evaluations have been conducted recently:
• Wagner, K. and Pöchhacker-Tröscher, G. (2018): aws Industry 4.0 programme, interim evaluation, com-
missioned by the Austria Wirtschaftsservice (aws);
• Ecker, B., Gassler, H., Gogola, G. and Sardadvar, S. (2019): Evaluation of “i2 Business Angels” and “aws 
Business Angel Fund”, commissioned by the Austria Wirtschaftsservice (aws);
• Enenkel, K., Merkl, F., Dudenbostel, T., Berger, F. and Vivanco, J. (2019): Evaluation of Industry Startup.
Net, commissioned by the Austria Wirtschaftsservice (aws);
• Warta, K., Dudenbostel, T., Gassler, H., Rammer, C. and Köhler, M. (2019): Evaluation of the Frontrunner 
Initiative, commissioned by the Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT);
• Wagner, K. und Pöchhacker-Tröscher, G (2019): Technology internationalisation programme “aws tec-
4market” – final report for programme evaluation, commissioned by the Austria Wirtschaftsservice 
(aws);
• Sardadvar, S. (2019): Risk Capital in Austria: Venture Capital, Business Angels and Data Validity, com-
missioned by the Austria Wirtschaftsservice (aws);
• Ecker, B. and Gogola, G. (2019): aws IP Coaching: Satisfaction and needs analysis based on a customer 
and stakeholder survey, commissioned by the Austria Wirtschaftsservice (aws).