Austrian clusters and internationalisation – strategies for 2019 and beyond

Submitted by Alina Danieles… on 18 June 2018

The National Austrian Cluster Platform was launched in 2008 and is the information and cooperation platform for national and federal cluster stakeholders in Austria. The platform organises six working groups on various themes such as “national innovation system”, “cluster praxis”, “EU policy”, “internationalisation”, “digitisation” and “environmental and energy research” that are addressing technological and innovation issues. Within each of these working groups specific, innovative and relevant topics are regularly discussed.

On May 24, 2018, the working group for internationalisation organised a strategy discourse with clusters dedicated to the future orientation of the Austrian export program “go-international”. This program is financed by the Federal Ministry Digital and Economic Affairs (BMDW) and implemented by the Aussenwirtschaft Austria of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce and has a budget of about € 14 million per year. In 2019 the new funding period will start.

During this strategic meeting with cluster representatives (especially from the areas of mobility, plastics, energy and environment, mechanical engineering, building) future activities were being discussed. According to the participating cluster managers the results of the discussion show indicate that the next funding period should consider the following priorities: participation of Austrian cluster companies in projects with funding provided by international financing institutions (like World Bank or Asian Developing Bank), export cooperation groups, international pitchings of start-ups and the focus on technological strengths of the Austrian cluster companies like health technologies or environmental technologies.

For more information about the National Austrian Cluster Platform see here.

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