Industry sectors

• Incubators and accelerators
• Incubated, highly innovative and technology-focused start-ups from all sectors

Company Size

SME

Stage

• At the time of application, the incubator or accelerator is operational for at least 12 months.
• The accompanied start-ups are in the pre-start-up or start-up phase.

Prerequisites

• At the time of application, at least 3 start-ups must be located in the incubator or accelerator.
• The incubator or accelerator has experience with bundled services for incubated companies – e.g.
  • economic, financial and legal advice,
  • mentoring and coaching,
  • Network offers or
  • Experience with digital business models.
  • The business model of the incubator or accelerator is powerful and scalable.
• Legal forms:
  • GmbH,
  • non-profit GmbH
  • OG, KG or
  • association

One of these legal forms must be established before the subsidy contract is drawn up.

• Not eligible:
  • pure real estate projects, e.g.
  • «virtual centers»,
  • Office, laboratory or production rooms without joint management and
  • Location communities without interdependence and common region-related economic or socio-economic goals.
• The incubator or accelerator receives no financial support from the federal government for this or a similar purpose.
• The incubated start-ups are highly innovative and technology-focused.
• The application is made by partnerships, natural or legal persons.
• The application is submitted before the project.
• The registered office or permanent establishment is located in Austria.
• The project will be implemented in Austria.

Program Objectives

By promoting incubators, accelerators and incubated start-ups, innovative and technology-focused companies and business ideas are to be established more quickly on the market and risks must be minimized.

Success rate

10 %

Type of financing

Grant

Funding amount

• Up to € 150,000 per incubator or accelerator
• Per incubated start-up up to € 22,500 - for max. 5 startups for each sponsored incubator or accelerator

Project duration

2 years

Eligible cost

Up to 100% of

• Staff cost
• Material cost – e.g. software, consulting fees, studies
• travel and training cost

Payout

50 % at project start, 50 % after finalisation of the projekt

Payback

none

Cost

none

• Incubators / accelerators and startups that do not meet the above requirements
• Incubators / Accelerators, which primarily serve foreign companies

Deadlines for applications

Currently you can not submit applications.

Decision process

1. Application: You submit the application with a form via the aws funding manager.
2. Formal Examination: We check that your application is timely, formally correct and complete. Possible defects can be remedied within 2 weeks.
3. Content assessment: An evaluation panel of national and international experts will check whether your application meets the quality criteria:
   • To what extent is the incubation concept suitable for pursuing the goals of the program?
   • Do you have the necessary qualifications and experience to successfully implement the project?
   • Are costs, time and effort in reasonable relation to the planned results?
   • What sustainable value do the concepts create - for incubators or accelerators, incubated start-ups and the regional economy?
   • Are the project results for incubator, accelerator and / or incubated start-ups significant in the short or long term?
   • International Benchmarking: How well is the underlying problem solved?
4. Recommendation of the evaluation panel: Based on the results and taking into account the objectives of the respective thematic focus, the evaluation panel submits a recommendation for funding - including possible conditions and / or conditions.
5. Funding decision by the aws: Based on this recommendation, we decide in the name and on behalf of the federal government, whether your application is approved or not.
6. Subsidy contract: We send you an offer with all conditions and conditions. You then have 2 months to accept this offer.

Duration of the process

Approx. 1 month