Energy R&D - Public Expenditure in Austria 2012

In 2012, Austria's public expenditure for energy-related research and development amounted to 120,098,940 euros. This is almost the same amount as in 2011 (120,821,607 euros). The highest proportion of this expenditure (76.4%) [2011: 80.7%] was provided by governmental authorities (federal, regional, funding organisations); the remaining part came from (publicly funded) research institutions and universities.

The expenditures of the federal ministries, either directly or via programmes within their fields of responsibility (excluding the Climate and Energy Fund), totaled up to 30,111,476 euros [2011: 29,109,691 euros], with the Federal Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology investing more than half of this amount. The Climate and Energy Fund spent 31,998,188 euros, which was far less than last year's expenditure [2011: 49,484,424 euros].

In 2012, the Research Promotion Fund (FFG) processed 68 million euros [2011: 89 million euros]; the majority of transactions were related to programmes run on behalf of the federal ministries and the Climate and Energy Fund. The basic programmes of the Research Promotion Fund slightly increased their funding for energy-related R&D to 15,766,786 euros [2011: 15,645,919 euros]. The expenditure of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) for basic research within the energy sector experienced substantial growth up to 3,473,734 euros [2011: 1,067,927 euros]. The total expenditure of the federal provinces was 10,436,773 euros [2011: 2,270,106 euros], their highest amount ever.

The universities spent 8,794,337 euros [2011: 8,515,026 euros] in total. The Vienna University of Technology had the highest expenditures. The expenditure of the (non-university) research institutions was 18,539,000 euros [2011: 13,237,631 euros], more than 93% of this sum was invested by the Austrian Institute of Technology - AIT. The amount of 978,646 euros was invested by Fachhochschulen (FH, universities of applied sciences) with equity capital [2011: 1,490,883 euros].

46.1% of the expenditure was used for the sector "energy efficiency" [2011: 52.7%] and 23.5% for the sector "renewable energy carriers" [2011: 21.1%]. Both areas, together with electricity transmission and distribution and energy storage clearly define the priorities for the publicly financed energy research within Austria. Particularly transport with some 20.8 million euros, electricity transmission and distribution (16.1 million euros), bioenergy (13.7 million euros), R&D topics in relation to energy-efficient buildings (planning, materials, heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, lighting etc.) with an expenditure of around 13 million euros, solar energy with about 11.7 million euros and improving the efficiency of communal services (district heating and cooling, traffic management systems etc.) with 9.5 million euros are the sectors with the highest expenditures.

64% of the funding was used for applied research, 18% for experimental development, 10% for demonstration and 8% for basic research.

More than 1,000 energy research projects and activities were registered and analysed for the year 2012 [2011: about 900].