Missions in Austria

02INTRODUCTION

Austria has set itself the target to create the best possible preconditions for implementing the EU missions at national level. The Austrian RTI Strategy 2030 and the RTI Pact 2021-2023 provide a coordinated strategic approach for the EU Missions at national level.

Stakeholders should be supported in contributing to the EU missions and participating in Horizon Europe successfully. In addition to a strategic approach at national level, an efficiently coordinated portfolio of funds should be deployed.

The introduction of missions at European level also requires the national research and research funding activities to be oriented on the Missions where appropriate. According to the Austrian Research Funding Act 2020, the core RTI institutions (research organisations, Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT), Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST-Austria), Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), Silicon Austria Labs, Ludwig Boltzmann Society (LBG), as well as the research funding institutions Austria Wirtschaftsservice (AWS), Christian Doppler Society (CDG), Austrian Science Fund (FWF), Austrian Agency for Education and Internationalisation (OeAD), Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG)) are called upon to contribute to implementing the strategic priorities of the RTI Pact, including the EU Missions, within the framework of their performance and funding agreements.

Every one of the five EU missions includes different policy objectives, stakeholder groups, economic and societal sectors, instruments and implementation steps. This is why a tailor-made Austrian implementation plan will have to be developed for each mission.

A "baseline“ study providing information on where the national RTI players stand with regard to the EU missions, and which potentials can be exploited for implementing the EU missions in future was published in 2022 (see Key document below).

Governance

A Working Group on EU Missions has been set up under the umbrella of the interministerial RTI Task Force, in order to coordinate and manage the implementation of the EU missions at national level. The Working Group is chaired by the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF) and the Federal Ministry of Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology (BMK). The Working Group on EU Missions has the following tasks:

  • Supporting and implementing the EU missions, with particular regard to integrating them in the performance agreements and funding agreements of the relevant core institutions according to the Research Funding Act (Forschungsfinanzierungsgesetz) 2020, as well as of the universities and universities of applied sciences;
  • Involvement of relevant stakeholder groups;
  • Preparation of proposals for the required policy mix and portfolio of instruments, including the resources required, for the EU missions;
  • Consultation on synergies with other EU programmes outside Horizon Europe;
  • Ensuring coherence of the missions implemented in Austria with the priorities of the Austrian RTI Strategy 2030 and the three-year RTI Pacts, as well as with the pillars and instruments of Horizon Europe;
  • Consultation on success factors and obstacles for implementing the missions, and preparing proposals for concrete measures for the successful implementation of EU missions, amongst others on the basis of on-going monitoring;
  • Facilitating discussion and exchange sessions on EU missions;
  • Cooperation with relevant bodies and processes at EU and OECD level.

The governance for implementing the missions in Austria also provides specialised Mission Action Groups for each of the missions. The members of the Mission Action Groups consist of RTI players and sectoral players. The Mission Action Groups coordinate the measures at national level in their respective areas. The Mission Action Groups are co-chaired by an RTI ministry and a sectoral ministry in principle.

In March 2023, the Federal Government's RTI Task Force adopted an "Implementation Framework for the EU Horizon Europe Missions in Austria". The "Implementation Framework" represents a strategy document, which is concretised by five action plans, one for each of the five EU missions. It can be downloaded under Key Documents below.