Multiple universities and research institutes in Austria’s capital, Vienna, have joined forces to establish the Academic Spin-out Alliance, which will look to provide a series of offerings, including joint spinout programmes.
The Medical University of Vienna, the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU), the Institute of Science and Technology Austria and its innovation arm XISTA, TU Wien, the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, WU Vienna, and the University of Vienna. The Vienna Business Agency joins them.
The Academic Spin-out Alliance will look to pool the expertise of and boost collaboration between the founding institutions, with a view to creating more spinouts and enhancing their international competitiveness.
Among the planned offerings are joint spinout and incubation programmes, cross-institutional collaboration to match co-founders, and other initiatives to accelerate tech transfer and commercialisation activities.
The alliance builds on significant momentum in the Austrian ecosystem, where 23% of all new startups are spinouts – a considerable increase from just 12% eight years ago.
Several of the alliance’s members boast their own venture funds, including XISTA, TU Wien, and WU Vienna. Earlier this year, the Austrian government also released its Industrial Strategy, which includes plans for a fund of funds that would put up to €500 million into university spinouts.
