From research to start-ups – strengthening entrepreneurship

Spin-off Fellowships: Successful start to the extended FFG programme 2022-2026 – almost 5 million euros for eleven projects – more projects submitted and funded than ever before

“Spin-off fellowships actively help to exploit innovative ideas and promote entrepreneurship at universities and research institutions,” says Martin Polaschek, Minister of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF). As with the first programme 2017-2021, interest in the first call of the extended programme was enormous: 36 applications were received by the submission deadline in September – more than in any previous submission round – eleven of which have now been selected by an international jury. Nine projects are based at universities, one at a non-university research institution and, for the first time, one at a university of applied sciences. The projects are based in the provinces of Styria (three projects), Vienna (five projects) and (one project each) Carinthia, Lower Austria and Upper Austria. The BMBWF is providing a further 15 million euros in total for the programme which was modelled on ETH Zurich’s ETH Pioneer Fellowship programme. The new projects will be funded with a total of 4.98 million euros. The next call is planned for the second quarter of 2023.

“Academic start-ups are key to the transfer of knowledge between science and industry. The spin-off fellowships significantly improve the environment for future spin-offs,” emphasise Henrietta Egerth and Klaus Pseiner, the two Managing Directors of the Austrian Research Promotion Agency FFG. The huge potential and interest was already evident in the programme’s first call: more than 90 project proposals were submitted to the FFG in a total of three submission rounds, 24 of which were then approved for funding. So far, 15 spin-offs have emerged from these projects.