Available funding in Austria
Background information
Funding opportunities for upskilling and reskilling to support the digital competences of individuals and organizations are available in form of loans, grants and financial instruments. For the period 2021 – 2026 most of the activities in digital transformation are financed through Recovery and Resilience facility but also as activities in Horizon, Erasmus+, ESIF and EEA grant schemes. You may find more on the page of Austrian Recovery and Resilience website, the Digital Austria web.
Recovery and resilience facility
Austrian Recovery and Resilience Plan has a digital share of 52.8% (EUR 1.8 billion). The plan will contribute to Austria’s digital transition in several areas.
- Investments within the 'Digital recovery' and 'Knowledge-based recovery' subcomponents address digital skills. These initiatives emphasise the digitization of education and reskilling and upskilling. For instance, the RRP allocated 172 million euros for the provision of personal IT equipment to all secondary school students.
- Supporting the widespread deployment of gigabit-capable access networks addresses connectivity. The plan intends for 50% of Austrian households to have an internet speed capacity of 100 Mbits/s. EUR 891 million are planned to be allocated to fulfil this objective.
- To promote innovative research, particularly quantum computation, the plan allocates 107 million euros to support digital infrastructures and international research collaboration.
- In addition, the Digitalisation Fund is contributing 160 million euros to the digitalisation of the public sector. By financing projects with a cross-departmental impact, this will help accelerate the digitalization of the federal government.
Two measures to support the digital transformation of enterprises and SMEs are part of the Austrian Recovery and Resilience Plan. Under the first measure, businesses that invest in the digitalisation of business models, processes, and cybersecurity measures are eligible for an investment premium. Until 2025, at least 7,000 businesses are anticipated to receive a total of 69 million euros in funding. The SME-specific measure comprises of two support programmes: (i) KMU.DIGITAL, which provides advisory and implementation support for digitalisation projects, and (ii) the e-commerce-specific KMU. E-Commerce programme. The total budget available for the two programmes is 32 million euros. Additionally, six Digital Innovation Hubs with distinct geographical and thematic foci have been established throughout Austria. They will be supplemented by European Digital Innovation Hubs in response to a current call for proposals.
National Funding
Businesses are also encouraged to provide ICT training, particularly SMEs. A federal support programme with a budget of EUR 2.6 million was launched to develop employee’s competencies in IT management, cyber security, cloud services, and e-commerce. This ‘Qualifizierungsoffensive’ provides Digital Skills vouchers and ‘digital pro bootcamps’ where participants are trained for 4-weeks.
Through the initiative ’Digi Scheck‘, the Federal Ministry for Labour and Economy funds training courses for apprentices that strengthen their professional and cross-professional competencies in future-oriented skills in the areas of digitization, climate protection, sustainability, energy and resource management and internationalization as part of dual training by means of grants. Up to EUR 500 per course with a maximum of three courses per year will be supported through public funding.
Several projects and activities in the STEM sector are scheduled between 2022 and 2024 in an effort to steer students and women towards ICT. In programmes related to ICT, artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, the internet of things, and e-government, 3,700 new study spaces will be created. In addition, the academic year 2023/24 will see the establishment of Technische Universität für Digitalisierung und Digitale Transformation in Linz, a new technical university for digitalisation and digital transformation. Current news regarding TU DuDT are available on Linz News.
Different funding options are also available on the Digital Skills and Jobs platform, you may find a listing for Austria on this link.
