LH Mikl-Leitner: Successes are the result of hard work, creative minds and collaboration between science and business
St. Pölten (OTS/NLK) – Four Lower Austrian research institutions have been extremely successful in the COMET program and have now been able to attract funding totaling 35 million euros. In the COMET centers, companies work together with research partners and thereby enable knowledge transfer to the economy. State Governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner congratulates the blue-yellow research institutions on the impressive achievements and emphasizes: “These successes are the result of hard work, creative minds and close cooperation between science and business. I am pleased that Lower Austria is being strengthened as a location for applied research and innovations.”
A total of four research institutions with a connection to Lower Austria were taken into account in the COMET federal funding program. Two of these research institutions have their headquarters in Lower Austria: the COMET Center (K2) AC2T RESEARCH in Wiener Neustadt and the COMET project “PI-SENS” of Danube Private University GmbH in Krems. The other projects with Lower Austrian participation are based in Graz and Ranshofen.
These four research collaborations with international participation can be implemented using the “COMET” funds provided by the federal research funding program. The state of Lower Austria will also provide a total of almost ten million euros to co-finance the research projects over the next five years. Mikl-Leitner emphasizes: “The involvement of top international researchers in these projects shows that our research institutions operate at a world level. Collaborating with leaders from different parts of the world opens new horizons and promotes the exchange of knowledge that is essential for innovative solutions.”
The federal government is funding the two centers AC2T RESEARCH and ACIB with a total of 32 million euros, releasing a total project volume of almost 97 million. The state of Lower Austria supports the competence centers with funding totaling almost nine million euros. The COMET Center (K2) AC2T RESEARCH, based in Wiener Neustadt, works on the development of tailor-made solutions in the area of friction, wear and lubricant applications. These drive ecological innovations in European and Austrian industry.
The “next generation bioproduction” at the ACIB (Austrian Center for Industrial Biotechnology), with locations in Graz, Vienna, Tulln and Innsbruck, represents a paradigm shift towards the application of synthetic biology. Based on the research slogan “Innovation from nature”, the research center designs advanced and environmentally friendly processes for the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and chemical industries that are both economically and technologically state-of-the-art. Methods and instruments from nature serve as models.
The two Lower Austrian COMET projects that further establish Lower Austria as a leading innovation location are “PI-SENS – Personalized Medicine enabled by Intelligent SEnsing Systems” (Danube Private University GmbH, Krems) and “ProMetHeus -PROduction and processing of METals for High-performance, Energy efficiency, environmental protection a. Sustainability” (LKR Light Metal Competence Center Ranshofen). The state of Lower Austria is investing 800,000 euros in these projects with Lower Austrian participation. The federal government funded the total project volume of 10.2 million euros with around three million euros.
Questions & Contact:
Office of the Lower Austrian State Government
State Office Directorate/Public Relations
Philipp Hebenstreit
02742/9005-13632
presse@noel.gv.at
www.noe.gv.at/presse