Research Policy at the National Level
Austria ranks among Europe’s top countries in terms of R&D intensity and also features a high concentration of research institutions relative to its population size. According to the latest estimates of Statistics Austria, a total of € 16.64 billion was invested in R&D in 2024.
Austria continues to strive towards becoming one of Europe’s most innovative countries. Efforts such as the reorganisation of research institutes and the implementation of new funding programmes are central to this strategy. Austrian research organisations and enterprises actively participate in majorEU research framework programmes, including Horizon Europe.
To foster a supportive research environment, Austria continuously implements new measures. Notably, the research premium, which can be claimed for expenditures on R&D, has been increased to 14%.
The estimated research ratio in Austria in 2024 is 3.34%, which is above the European target value of 3% for the eleventh year in succession.
The European Research Area (ERA) plays an important part in Research, Technology and Innovation in Austria. In order to position Austria in the group of "Innovation Leaders" in the long run it will be necessary to promote internationalisation efforts in research and to participate even more in European research programmes and to optimise the participation of the country’s enterprises and research organisations.
On 29 May 2015 the Competitiveness Council adopted conclusions in connection with the European ERA Roadmap 2015-2020. In these conclusions the Council called upon each member state to provide for the national implementation of the European ERA Roadmap by means of national action plans or strategies. With the "Austrian ERA Roadmap" Austria complies with this request by the research ministers of the European Union and follows the European ERA Roadmap, both with regard to structure and to content. On 30 November 2018 Council Conclusions on the governance of the European Research Area were adopted under the Austrian Presidency. The ERA Council Conclusions consist of three parts: (a) Acknowledgement of important progress by the different ERA-related groups in implementing the ERA agenda; (b) Decision of the research ministers on the "ERA Advisory Structure", based on the pertinent review and the ERAC report; (c) Outlook on the future of ERA, with the invitation to the European Commission to publish a new ERA Communication by 2020 as well as to Council Presidencies to organise regular ERA ministerial conferences. Regarding the Horizon Europe regulation, the Council reached a political agreement with a partial general approach.
Regarding Europe and the European Research Area (ERA), the ERA Observatory Austria establishes a new roof for the integrated governance of Austria’s role in European RTI policy. It supports evidence-based decision-making and enables Austria to play an active role in Europe. If you are further interested in EU-related research policy and its implementation in Austria and in Europe please refer to the ERA Portal Austria.