Austria was one of the founding members of Eureka in 1985 and this year, under the motto “Towards a New Eureka”, Austria will take the Chair for a second time. From July 2020 to June 2021, the new Chairmanship team intend to explore and build on past achievements and successes, while at the same time looking into and working on what is needed for the future.
Accordingly, the Austrian Chairmanship will prioritise the further development of Eureka’s programmes, global outreach and internal cooperation, as well as upholding the unique selling point of Eureka: keeping its valuable local specialisations and core DNA intact.
Since its foundation, Eureka has stimulated 7,500 international collaborative projects, resulting in a total public-private investment of more than 48 billion euro. After a long and successful history, the concept of Eureka is more relevant than ever in a setting where global framework conditions have fundamentally changed. The key social, political and economic challenges of today’s world (like the COVID-19 pandemic) can only be addressed on a global level, and these challenges need innovative solutions to be developed in a fast and satisfactory way through international cooperation.
During the Austrian Chairmanship, the Eureka programmes will be renewed to provide the optimal toolbox for member states and our global partners to support a new generation of innovative solutions for the pressing issues we face today and in the future.
NEW Eureka shall form a leading platform to connect our industries, SMEs and knowledge institutions, and to fulfil our common vision and mission.
Today, Eureka member countries face an historically unique challenge: the COVID-19 crisis. It heavily affects our society and economy, and fast and determined action is needed in response. At the same time, Eureka enters a new era.
The Austrian Chairmanship team will prepare and implement the launch of the new Eurostars programme in partnership with the European Union under Horizon Europe. We will also implement the new Clusters programme designed by the Netherlands Chair, and the new Strategic Roadmap 2021-2027 will set the priorities of our global network in the coming years.
NEW Eureka will be achieved: firstly, by promoting our renewed toolbox of instruments; secondly, by ensuring and extending our outreach and encouraging intensified global cooperation; and thirdly, by advancing collaboration within the network to shape the future of NEW Eureka.
Let us work together to fulfil our vision of Eureka being “the world’s leading intergovernmental network for research and innovation cooperation, through aligned national priorities and funding with the aim of generating socio-economic benefits across the Eureka countries”.