Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020

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Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020
7.3 Overview of Open Innovation measures and examples of their implementation 
initiatives
Measure 1
Measure 2
Measure 3
Measure 4
Measure 5
Measure 6
Building Open Inno-
vation and experi-
mental spaces
Embed Open Inno-
vation elements at 
kindergartens and 
schools as well as in 
teacher training
Further develop 
public administra-
tion by means of 
Open Innovation 
and greater public 
involvement
Set up and operate 
an Open Innovation 
platform for social/
societal innovation 
and as a contribu-
tion to overcoming 
global challenges
Set up and operate 
an innovation map 
including a match-
making platform for 
innovation actors
Build up research 
competence for 
the application of 
Open Innovation in 
science
Action 
area 1
Creation of a culture 
of Open Innovation 
and teaching of 
Open Innovation 
skills to children and 
adults
FFG – lateral entry 
for teachers within 
the framework of 
Impact Innovation
FFG, BMK – Regional 
Talents
BMK – open consul-
tations as part of 
the efforts to draw 
up an AI expert 
paper
LBG – Open Inno-
vation in Science 
Research and 
Competence Center 
(OIS) 
Action 
area 2
Formation of 
heterogeneous open 
innovation networks 
and partnerships 
across all disci-
plines, industries 
and organisations
BMK – test environ-
ments for automat-
ed driving
FFG, KLIEN – flag-
ship region for 
energy 
FFG – create Open 
Innovation testbeds 
in selected projects 
of the COMET 
centres
PPPI, BMDW, BMK 
– Matchmaking 
platform & crowd-
sourcing challenges 
FFG – Laura Bas-
si 4.0 
BMK – innovation 
platform AAL 
Austria
Austrian Patent 
Office – Open Data 
Initiative 
BMBWF research 
infrastructure 
database
Action 
area 3
Mobilisation of re-
sources and creation 
of the framework 
conditions for open 
innovation
ÖBB – Open Innova-
tion Lab & Service 
Design Center
FFG – innovation 
workshops 
FFG, BMK – innova-
tion laboratories
FFG – Education 
LABs
FFG – Education 
LABs 
FFG – contentX-
change within the 
framework of Impact 
Innovation
BMK, BBG – “naBe” 
platform
BMK – Open4Inno-
vation platform 

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7. Annex I
217
Measure 7
Measure 8
Measure 9
Measure 10
Measure 11
Measure 12
Measure 13
Measure 14
Establish incentive 
mechanisms for re-
search partnerships 
with non-traditional 
players in research 
funding to strength-
en Open Innovation
Increase involve-
ment of users and 
members of the 
public in RTI funding 
programmes
Develop fair sharing 
and compensation 
models for crowd-
work
Further develop 
and provide Open 
Innovation methods 
and Open Innova-
tion instruments 
specifically for small 
and medium-sized 
enterprises (SMEs)
Develop and imple-
ment co-creation 
and Open Innovation 
training programmes
Embed principles of 
Open Data and Open 
Access in research
Gear the IP and 
exploitation strate-
gies of companies, 
universities, research 
institutions and 
intermediaries to 
Open Innovation in 
order to optimise 
innovation potential 
Implement a compre-
hensive communica-
tion initiative about 
Open Innovation to 
raise awareness and 
create networks
FFG – Open Innova-
tion workshops with 
the management of 
the COMET centres
Salzburg – Com-
petence Centre for 
Open Innovation 
(KOI) 
FFG – Research 
competence for the 
industry – Funding 
of Open Innovation 
qualification projects
Austrian Patent 
Office – Training and 
events 
FFG – Crash course 
on Open Innovation 
methods in the 
context of Impact 
Innovation
Austrian Patent 
Office – Open Data 
Initiative 
FWF – Plan S – 
Making Open Access 
a reality by 2020
Austrian Patent Of-
fice – Raising aware-
ness of exploitation 
strategies 
aws (ncp-ip) – Web-
Guide faire.open.
innovation
BMBWF & BMK 
– Information & 
communication work 
via the official Open 
Innovation website 
(www.openinnova-
tion.gv.at) 
BMBWF & BMK – 
Focus on networking 
with OI in workshops
FFG – Ideas Lab 4.0
BMK – AAL test 
regions 
IHS – RiConfigure 
– Democratizing 
innovation 
BMK – Involving of 
future female users 
in FEMtech Research 
Projects
FFG, BMDW – Focus 
on open innovation 
in the COIN net-
works
BMK – “e-genius” 
open content 
platform 
BMK – Exchange 
of open RTI data 
pioneers
BMK – Information & 
communication work 
within the scope of 
the Open4Innovation 
platform 
FFG – Ideas Lab 4.0 
CDG – Partnership in 
Research 
IHS – RiConfigure 
– Democratizing 
innovation
FFG – Impact 
Innovation – “Erd-
beerwochen” project 
(Strawberry Weeks 
project) 
FFG – Involve 
end-users in the 
General Programme 
aws (ncp-ip) – 
Web Guide www.
fair-open-innova-
tion.at
Salzburg – Com-
petence Centre for 
Open Innovation 
(KOI) 
Austrian Patent Of-
fice – SME research 
service offering
FWF – Plan S – 
Making Open Access 
a reality by 2020 
Universities, BMBWF 
– Implementation of 
the OANA recom-
mendations on Open 
Access 
BMK – Provision 
of research results 
of funded projects 
(Open4Innovation – 
Platform)
BMBWF – AT2OA 
Austrian Transition 
to Open Access 
BMBWF – e-Infra-
structures Austria 
BMBWF – Open 
Education Austria 
BMBWF – Portfolio/
Showroom

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8. Annex II

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8. Annex II
219
Federal research funding and research 
contracts according to the federal research 
database
The database for research funding and contracts 
(B_f.dat)
220
for the federal government has been in 
place since 1975, and was set up as a “documenta-
tion of facts by the federal government”. Today, the 
database is maintained by the Federal Ministry of 
Education, Science and Research (BMBWF). The 
mandatory reporting of the ministerial departments 
to the relevant Science Minister is recorded in the 
Research Organisation Act (FOG), Federal Law Ga-
zette No. 341/1981, last amended by Federal Law 
Gazette I No. 31/2018. In 2008, it was changed to 
a database to which all ministerial departments 
have access and in which they all enter their re-
search-related funding and contracts independent-
ly. Each ministerial department is responsible for 
the validity and completeness of the data in its re-
spective field of activity. The federal research data-
base has been accessible to the public since 1 June 
2016, providing the latest overview of the projects 
funded by the federal ministries. As a documenta-
tion database, the B_f.dat also serves to collect 
brief information on the content of the listed re-
search promotion schemes and contracts awarded. 
With regard to the relevant reporting year, the da-
tabase contains ongoing, newly approved and al-
ready completed R&D contracts and grants, their 
overall funding volume and actual funds paid in the 
reporting year. All in all, this gives an up-to-date 
picture of directly commissioned R&D studies, as-
sessments, evaluations, grants and their funding by 
the federal government.
The federal research database thus contributes 
to transparency in the allocation of public funds 
220 See 
www.bmbwf.gv.at/bfdat-public
221 This figure does not include institutional funding with amounts of over €500,000 each.
222 There is a possibility of double counting due to projects being shared amongst the ministries.
and to the overall picture of research funding in 
Austria. Overall, however, the volume of research 
contracts and funding directly commissioned by 
the ministerial departments is relatively small, es-
pecially when compared to the university budgets 
and the resources of the research funding agencies 
(for details, see the overview of the federal govern-
ment’s use of research-related funds in the Annex). 
The amounts should therefore be seen as supple-
mentary information in the sense of providing max-
imum transparency and completeness.
The data in the B_f.dat reveal that a total of 411 
R&D projects were funded in 2019 with a volume of 
€456.34 million. Approximately 87% of the funds in 
2019 were paid out as global funding to research 
institutions. This figure also includes the global in-
stitutional funding; if that amount is excluded from 
the partial volumes paid, a total funding of €61.09 
million remains.
221
This is €10.3 million or 14.4% less 
than in 2018. It should be noted that this funding 
for each reporting year is usually a partial amount 
for an ongoing or completed project and this is 
subject to annual fluctuations depending on the 
progress of the respective projects. 
In 2019, the Federal Ministry of Education, Sci-
ence and Research (BMBWF) was the ministerial 
department with the largest share of entries and 
funding amounts (see Figure 8-1): 32.6% of the 
R&D projects
222
or 73.2% of the amounts (exclud-
ing global financing) were allocated to the BMBWF. 
This corresponds to an increase of 4.9 percentage 
points in funding cases and a slight decrease of 
0.2 percentage points in the amounts. In terms of 
the number of RTI contracts and grants, the Federal 
Ministry of Education, Science and Research 
(BMBWF) is followed by the Federal Ministry for 
Sustainability and Tourism (BMNT); in terms of 

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