Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020

4.2.5 Evaluation of the Space Strategy
2012–2020 and of the Austrian Space 
Applications Programme
The evaluation covers both the “Space – Future 
Space” strategy adopted in 2012 and the national 
“Austrian Space Applications Programme (ASAP)” as 
an important instrument in implementing the strate-
gy.
209
The Austrian Space Strategy was developed as 
part of a multi-year coordination process between 
209 See Kaufmann et al. (2020).
210 ARTIST stands for “Austrian Radionavigation Technology and Integrated Satnav services and products Testbed.”
211 Systematic multi-stage survey of experts.
the Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and 
Technology – BMVIT (now the Federal Ministry for 
Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Inno-
vation and Technology – BMK), the Austrian Research 
Promotion Agency (FFG), other ministries and agen-
cies as well as space science, research and industry, 
and represents one of the first RTI sub-strategies at 
the federal level. In addition to outlining the priori-
ties and competences of the Austrian space sector, 
the strategy represents for the first time a vision de-
fined with four objectives, four general guidelines, 
five measures aimed at improving organisation and 
cooperation between the stakeholders, and a further 
13 measures for the programme-related orientation 
of the space activities at the Federal Ministry for 
Transport, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT).
Austria has had a national space promotion pro-
gramme in place since 2002. At that time, it was be-
ing implemented via the two programme lines (ASAP 
and ARTIST
210
). The two programmes were merged 
into the Austrian Space Programme (ÖWP) in 2005, 
and this was renamed the Austrian Space Applica-
tions Programme (ASAP) in 2007. 
The evaluation aims to provide recommendations 
for further development of the strategy and the pro-
gramme based on an analysis of the commitment to 
space research in the period between 2012-2018. In 
addition to an analysis of the strategy document 
with respect to its structure, internal coherence and 
logic, an analysis of the content was also carried out 
by comparing this with the space strategies in other 
countries and a two-stage online Delphi
211
with na-
tional and international experts and Austrian stake-
holders from industry and research. The competitive-
ness of Austrian space research and the economic 
competitiveness of Austrian companies in the space 
sector were also mapped out. An analysis was also 
completed of the level to which the Austrian Space 
Applications Programme (ASAP) is enshrined within 

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