In 2022, the funding company distributed more money than ever before for infrastructure and research projects.
“Only cash is true: That could be an additional slogan for us,” says Klaus PseinerManaging Director of FFG. The Österreichische Forschungsförderungsgesellschaft mbH is 100 percent owned by the Republic of Austria and aims to promote research in Austria. The more money the FFG has at its disposal, the better. And 2022 was a good year.
As announced in the annual balance sheet, the FFG was able to 1.983 billion euros forgive. That is a historic high. It is almost 3 times as much as in 2020 and 2021. 819 million euros related to research and development (R&D). 1.164 billion euros on infrastructure projects. These include broadband expansion and zero-emission buses. Managing Director Henrietta Egerth also said that the promotion of broadband expansion only made up a small part of the budget.
20 percent of the good projects had to be rejected
Despite the large amount of money available to the FFG 2022, it could still be more: “20 percent of the submitted projects had to be rejected due to a lack of funds, although they were classified as good or very good,” said Egerth. For comparison: 25.3 percent was rejected for quality reasons. But that doesn’t mean that these projects are fundamentally bad. Sometimes it would take too long to bring the resulting products to market or another company is already further along in a similar research. “Many companies are grateful for this feedback, even if the project was rejected,” said Egerth. total be 93 percent of the customers, as FFG calls the entirety of the companies, educational and research institutions, are satisfied with the funding company. 80 percent would not have carried out their projects without the financial support.
Not only start-ups are funded: Established companies also regularly submit projects. Total were in the previous year 53 percent of the funded companies have been “new customers”, “and we are proud of that”, says Egerth. The accusation that it is always the same companies and universities that are funded anyway is not correct at all. At the FFG, the focus is on the quality of the projects and not on who submits them.
Clear trends were observed in the projects in 2022. 586 million euros were awarded to sustainability projects. Projects in the field of digitization were 455 million euros promoted.
Quantum, space and microchips
Projects supported by the FFG also have more chances of being funded by the EU. Especially in the research area quantum physics Austria excelled in the EU area in 2022. This year stands with me IRIS2 also a large European space project at the start. The new satellite network should primarily be available to governments and authorities as access to the Internet in emergencies, such as natural disasters. The capacities should also be sufficient for commercial use. Here, the FFG promises to make Austrian companies fit with funding so that they can participate in IRIS2 and other space projects of the EU.
Another big topic will be this and in the next few years the European one chip law be. Here the EU wants to promote the manufacture and development of microchips in Europe in order to be less dependent on the USA and Asia. The FFG will work to ensure that Austria receives EU funding for new locations for the production of chips or for the expansion of these locations. Companies such as Infineon and AT&S already operate chip development sites in Austria.
