Interview Wiener Zeitung, April 2009
What are ZIT’s priorities in technology promotion?
In the past few years, we primarily funded four technology areas: life sciences/biotechnology, media, information and communication technology, and the field of environment, energy and mobility. And the success in Vienna has been quite remarkable. For example, in the field of biotechnology, Vienna has undergone an impressive catching up process compared to Munich within a short period of time. In addition, we have witnessed major growth in the number of employees working in the field of media and creative industries.
What do innovative companies get from you except for grants? In other words, what does ZIT do which others don’t?
The special thing about ZIT is that we offer everything under one roof. The fact is that one needs grants and consulting and procuring experts, along with the right offices and laboratories and an inspiring working environment and partnerships with prospective synergy effects. In the last few years, we have seen that money alone is not enough to support entrepreneurs and company founders in the realization of their ideas. Let me give one example: we actively bring companies together with scientific partners who could support them to realize their ideas. Last year, the technology consultants of ZIT actively provided support to numerous innovations, and thus made a contribution to ensuring that Viennese companies could hold their own in the face of international competition.
The City of Vienna now increasingly supports media companies. Is one trying to save the crisis-prone media sector?
At the outset, let me say that we consider media to be a very broad term. It ranges from the extremely successful Viennese games developers to the e-book publishers. More than 50,000 people in Vienna work in the media sector, and the City of Vienna has recognized its significance. In particular, the many small and young media companies display a particularly pro-active innovative behavior. This means they launch many new innovations on the marketplace, but are much more susceptible to difficulties than large, established firms. For this reason, we have initiated a series of initiatives, from topic-oriented tender competitions for funding to the Media Quarter Marx.
Vienna is different, as the slogan goes. How are differences between Vienna and other innovation locations manifested?
Developments in Asia show that the trend is clearly towards gigantic cross-sectoral research and technology parks. The dimensions of these projects actually suggest that they involve logistics and industrial hubs. In contrast, Viennese locations for research, technology and innovation are small but mighty. In any case, they are highly specialized and very dynamic. And these are the types of features which will help them to emerge on the international radar screen. The example of Campus Vienna Biocenter demonstrates that the mixture of education, research and development is an ideal one. And with AFFiRiS, a typical biotech start-up at Campus Vienna Biocenter managed in the autumn of last year to conclude the biggest biotechnology licensing deal ever in Austrian history..
