Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020

The Austrian Space Applications Programme
The national funding programme operates on an in-
ternational level in terms of the quality-related re-
quirements for project applications. A large part of 
the funded activities in the Austrian Space Applica-
tions Programme (ASAP) in the past was allocated to 
the upstream sector according the actual signifi-
cance of the added value, i.e. products and services 
for space objects, launchers and instruments that are 
taken into space or are being upgraded there. How-
ever, the growing share of applications on Earth is 
increasing the importance of the midstream (in-or-
bit/on ground operations services and data manage-
ment and distribution) and downstream sectors 
(products and services for satellite-based applica-
tions in science, navigation, meteorology, telecom-
munications and Earth observation). 
The Austrian Space Applications Programme 
(ASAP) is above all used by the funding recipients to 
develop or test ideas in projects so that they can 
then continue these primarily in ESA programmes. 

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4. RTI Evaluation Culture and Practice
197
The intended leverage effect of the Austrian Space 
Applications Programme (ASAP) is therefore also ev-
ident in practice: most of the projects are being pur-
sued by both research institutions and companies, 
either within the framework of other funding pro-
grammes (the ESA and at EU level) or with the inten-
tion of commercial exploitation. The effects of the 
programme in terms of its economic impact in com-
panies and knowledge transfer at research institu-
tions and companies are broadly comparable with 
other topic-based funding programmes in the Austri-
an Research Promotion Agency (FFG) portfolio. The 
programme objectives can be considered to have 
largely been achieved overall in terms of the indica-
tors selected.