When we looked at Germany in last month’s Global University Venturing, we noted how the country was lacking an over-all strategy and legal framework for research commercialisation. The same legal reality is true in its neighbour Austria, where the Higher Education Law 2005 makes no mention of spin-out companies or commercialisation – but that has not stopped collaboration.
You could be forgiven for mistaking Austria as a country where little innovation happens at universities. Indeed, only one spin-out popped up on our radar over the past year, Bitmovin from Klagenfurt University, when it raised a seven-figure sum. But the small number of publicised spin-outs paints a misleading picture.
Although the Austrian Statistics Agency, a non-profit organisation established in 2000 by the government, has noted that the country’s spending on research and development is dropping in relative terms – in 2013, the country spent 2.9% of its GDP on research. In 2014 this is expected to be 2.88%. It is a different story in absolute numbers. Spending here is increasing steadily, and will reach €9.32m ($11.8m) in 2014, up 2.7% over last year.
Despite not being legally enshrined in the law on the functioning of universities, the Austrian Ministry of Science, Research and Economy nevertheless supports the Association of Austrian Technology Centres, the umbrella organisation for tech transfer offices (TTOs), established in 1989.
With 38 universities and 240 polytechnics, the country counts a total of 88 TTOs which have produced 955 spin-outs to date. On top of this, 22 research parks have produced 404 spin-outs. A network of incubators, reunited under the banner of AplusB (academia plus business) counts eight such incubators across the country, which have helped 88 companies off the ground.
AplusB particularly has an agenda that ensures Austria is an innovative country – it supports universities before and during the commercialisation process and has among its principles the core mission that it will stimulate spin-out efforts and enforce technology transfer. It also invests in these spin-outs.
The Ministry of Science, Research and Economy is taking a page out of France’s book and is aiming to further push TTOs to work together and increase their regional economic power across nine federal states – Vienna counts as one.
Osta is part of the Austrian embassy in Washington DC and was set up with the aim of fostering knowledge transfer between the two nations. The office has several core missions. First, it aims to setup and support a network of Austrian researchers in North America. Second, it is hoping to learn from US policies covering science, research and technology. It also establishes and supports research collaborations. Most importantly of all, Osta collects data on and experiences of spin-outs in the US before compiling and adapting it for the Austrian market.
Osta has been a success in Washington – so much so that in 2012 the three ministries expanded their effortand established an office in the country’s Beijing embassy to tap into the huge Chinese market.
Finally, the country has also set up a National Foundation for Research, Technology and Development which invests in Austrian research. The foundation invests with a long-term view on return on investment and is meant to strengthen Austria’s technology transfer efforts so that they may have an international impact. The foundation is an evergreen fund that receives up to €75m a year from the Austrian central bank.
It may have already achieved much, but the country is not resting on its laurels. It is still setting up technology transfer companies, the latest being the Centre for Knowledge and Technology Transfer in Medicine, opened officially in June this year.
The centre is on the campus of the Medical University of Graz and in immediate proximity to the university hospital. Its seven floors cost €24m to build, and these now offer 10,800 square metres of lab and office space, as well as housing a life sciences incubator.