Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020

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Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020
• FH Campus Wien: Startup Center, supporting stu-
dent-driven innovation;
• FH CAMPUS 02 University of Applied Sciences: 
INNOLAB with a particular focus on SMEs;
• University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria: fi-
nancing fund for start-ups.
The OECD recommends that awareness of an “Entre-
preneurial and Innovation Agenda” be increased fur-
ther in the future. As well as issues such as enter-
prise creation and IP rights, this must also focus 
across the board on encouraging researchers and 
students to adopt a positive attitude towards entre-
preneurial initiatives and innovation. This entrepre-
neurial agenda also requires those responsible for 
governance to take a holistic view. Ultimately, the 
innovative and entrepreneurial universities and uni-
versities of applied sciences need to be seen with all 
their varied characteristics and facets, and this 
breadth and diversity also needs to be actually taken 
into account when developing strategies, setting tar-
gets and measuring success and impact.
Call for proposals regarding the digital and social 
transformation at universities 
The social dimension and digital transformation are 
two key priorities in the performance agreements 
with the 22 public universities in the 2019–2021 per-
formance agreement period. They encompass numer-
ous projects for implementing the national strategy 
on the social dimension in higher education while 
also supporting projects and measures that are driv-
ing forward the digital transformation at Austrian 
universities. In particular, universities are being called 
on to develop and implement an institutional digital-
isation strategy. To lend even more effective support 
in both areas, €50 million was made available explic-
itly for a call for proposals for cooperative projects 
on the topic of “digital and social transformation” as