Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020

of the EU contribution 
 
(in € millions)
Horizon 2020 total
123,701
3,571
2.9
28,355
735
2.6 51,693.1
1,460.1
2.8
Excellent Science
39,139
913
2.3
15,590
359
2.3 18,490.2
482.6
2.6
of which ERC
5,920
158
2.7
5,496
148
2.7
9,795.3
266.6
2.7
Industrial Leadership
28,425
982
3.5
5,968
172
2.9 11,096.0
370.5
3.3
Societal Challenges
51,059
1,518
3.0
6,032
180
3.0
19,811.7
564.6
2.8
Spreading Excellence and Widening 
Participation
1,046
34
3.3
321
1
0.3
703.4
9.9
1.4
Science with and for Society
1,576
96
6.1
164
18
11.0
326.6
23.6
7.2
Cross-Theme
795
14
1.8
184
2
1.1
403.9
6.1
1.5
EURATOM
1,661
14
0.8
96
3
3.1
861.3
2.9
0.3
Source: EC/Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) as of March 2020.

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60
Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020
These different types of institutions are involved 
to a varying degree in each programme line. In terms 
of funding acquired, the proportion for the Austrian 
higher education sector under Pillar I (“Excellent Sci-
ence”) is 68.4%. This can be attributed – unsurpris-
ingly – to a high proportion of participations in Euro-
pean Research Council (ERC) projects, at 73.9%. 
However, in the programme lines FET and MCSA, the 
higher education sector’s share of acquired funding 
is very high, at 70.7% and 65.9% respectively. The 
corresponding proportion for the non-university sec-
tor under Pillar I is 18.2%, and for the business enter-
prise sector, 12.3%. Within Pillar II (“Industrial Leader-
ship”) and Pillar III (“Societal Challenges”) in contrast, 
the picture – measured in terms of acquired funding 
– is completely different. Under these two pillars the 
level of participation by the Austrian business enter-
prise sector is ahead of that by the Austrian non-uni-
versity sector. The share of participation by the Aus-
trian higher education sector in these two areas, in 
contrast, is just under 20% for the former, and ap-
proximately 20% for the latter. In terms of funding 
acquired, the proportion for the Austrian business 
enterprise sector under Pillar II is 54.5%. The corre-
sponding share for the Austrian non-university sector 
is 25.5%, and for the higher education sector, 16.4%. 
Under Pillar III (“Societal Challenges”), in terms of 
funding acquired, the proportion for the Austrian 
business enterprise sector is 37.9%. The correspond-
ing proportion under this pillar for the non-university 
sector is also comparatively high, at 29.7%. For the 
higher education sector the proportion of funding ac-
quired under Pillar III is just 22.0%. In the horizontal 
programme area “Science with and for society“, Aus-
trian participation can be broken down by organisa-
tion type and amount of funding acquired: Higher 
education sector: 28.0%, business enterprise sector: 
12.4%, and non-university sector: 44.3%. In the pro-
gramme area “Spreading excellence and expanding