Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020

1. Current Trends
77
and incorporating the lessons learned into regional 
plans of action. 
Within the framework of financial support, anoth-
er key element of the Creative Industries Strategy 
was implemented in the form of the “Creat(iv)e Solu-
tions Call” pilot. This allows SMEs to devise new 
solutions for their business challenges with the help 
of companies in the creative industries – through 
process and business model innovations and the use 
of new methods such as design thinking. This fund-
ing is intended to propel targeted crossover innova-
tion and transformation effects from the creative in-
dustries to the rest of the economy. In an initial 
round of funding, seven partnerships were handed 
support worth some €1.2 million. The existing “im-
pulse XL” and “impulse XS” project funding schemes 
were continued, although the submission process 
was overhauled and simplified to reduce the admin-
istrative outlay required by companies and ensure 
shorter time-to-market cycles. Overall, 75 projects 
received impulse project funding worth nearly €4.9 
million in 2019.
The partnerships that the strategy calls for be-
tween the creative industries and other industries 
were instigated by means of crossover workshops, 
which used a “matchmaking” format to bring cre-
atives and their customers from industry together so 
that each could learn from the other in a process led 
by a moderator. Creatives can show companies how 
they can use the creative industries to grow their 
business, while designers, advertisers, architects, 
software developers, musicians and film-makers can 
get a better idea of their customers’ needs and busi-
ness models.
The potential for the creative industries to trans-
form other sectors of the economy is to be tapped in 
new “transformation workshops”. Selected SMEs 
from a particular industry use new innovation meth-
ods to devise solutions for their specific company 
with the help of hand-picked professionals from the 
88 See 
https://www.bmbwf.gv.at/Themen/Hochschule-und-Universität/Aktuelles/Neuauflage-des-Gesamtösterreichischen-
Universitätsentwicklungsplans-GUEP-2022-bis-2027.html
world of design, marketing, film, photography or dig-
italisation. The lessons learned during the entire in-
dustry’s transformation and the results of this trans-
formation process will be edited, prepared and made 
available to all members of the industry as a set of 
guidelines.