START project in the Vienna region
---
Along with several other regions in Europe, Vienna Region, through participation in the START project, which is part of the European Commission sponsored PAXIS programme, hopes to achieve several advances in the development of its local innovation start-ups. Those targeted in the project are the spin-offs forming from both higher education institutes and private firms within the research and development environment. The rate of creation, quality of output and sustainability of start-ups are the key areas in which improvements are expected. These objectives will be reached through a combination of:
- raising the awareness of the commercial innovation opportunities to all relevant actors and then creating incentives to stimulate mobilisation of these actors to enter into start-up ventures
- ensuring the presence and accessibility of pre-seed funding
- provision of professional managerial and technological support to existing and developing start-up companies
Spin-off success within the Vienna region will be enhanced by analysing existing spin-offs in both the public and private sectors, facilitating the exchange of important experiences and tools and experimenting with new settings and methods in order to develop new tools. Best practices and policies can be extracted and can then be disseminated and adopted throughout the region. A useful by-product of the project is that, as it requires a pooling of resources and co-operation between all parties, networking potential will be increased and a greater inter-disciplinary understanding will be forged creating a synergistic affect. |
