iconannual 2015 - The European Business and Investment Magazine

Smart Cities & Regions
MA 23 – Wirtschaft, Arbeit und Statistik
Mag. Elisabeth Unger
Fotos: Stadt Wien PID
Collaborations with research institutions or corporations
result in new know-how or complementary skills
and resources for partners. In this respect, Austria is
a good base for enterprises: for both indicators “Business-Science
Link – SME” and “Business-Science Link –
Leading Competence Unit” of the EU Community Innovation
Survey (CIS), Austria holds 3 rd position in Europe,
ahead of Sweden and Germany. The close co-operation
of research institutions and business makes Vienna an
attractive innovation focus. Thus the “COMET Competence
Centers for Excellent Technologies” and the Christian
Doppler Laboratories are considered European best
practices.
economic competition. The challenges for metropolitan
regions are often similar; hence, thinking outside the
box and looking at the situation of others is essential to
be able to compare answers and learn lessons. At the
same time, this makes it easier for cities to communicate
their strengths at the national and international level,
and cities or regions find it therefore advantageous to
co-operate.
The promotion of innovations, the support of knowhow
transfer and the fostering of start-up companies
play a key role for Vienna as an economic hub. Already
today, the City of Vienna is helping new enterprises to
get started, settle in the Austrian capital and network
with others.
One example of this is the Vienna start-up welcome
package of the Vienna Business Agency 2 . Of course, a
multicultural city like Vienna also offers services such
as “Migrant Enterprises” of the Vienna Business Agency
or the cross-border project 3 “TwinEntrepreneurs”,
which provides coaching and grants for start-ups in Vienna
and Bratislava.
Business co-operation
fuels economic growth
Successful business co-operation ventures are highly
beneficial for economic development in general. A study
commissioned by the City of Vienna has highlighted
that “knowledge spillovers” between enterprises foster
growth because the investments and innovations of one
company will trigger positive effects for others.
Europe-wide co-operation in the fields of innovation
and research helps to enable researchers to freely exchange
their scientific findings across borders. However,
this co-operation also facilitates the joint tackling of major
challenges such as climate change or demographic
change. Austria’s participation in the EU Framework
Programme for Research and Innovation "Horizon 2020"
will thus be of central importance. A notable strength of
Vienna has emerged over recent years: almost half of all
Austrian project leaders under the 7th EU Framework
Programme for Research and Innovation were domiciled
in Vienna.
It is not by chance that the Austrian capital, which
in the past decades has evolved into a dynamic economic
hub between Western and Eastern Europe as well
as a model of urban development, occupies superlative
positions in many international rankings. Neither does
it come as a surprise that Vienna is attracting more and
more people as a top tourist destination (with 13.4 million
overnight stays in 2014), a city to live in or a centre
of Europe’s creative industries and start-up companies.
2 3 http://viennabusinessagency.at/ http://www.twinentrepreneurs.eu/
The European Business and Investment Magazine iconannual 103