EU Funding - International Co-operation

Contact (German)

The funding programmes INTERREG implement 3 cross-border programmes and the trans-national programme CENTRAL EUROPE.

Interreg V-A cross-border

Vienna participates in the following cross-border programmes, with Municipal Department 27 - European Affairs (MA 27) acting as the regional co-ordination point for the Federal Province of Vienna:

• Interreg V-A programme Slovakia – Austria (cross-border)
  Programme area: Vienna, Burgenland, Lower Austria, Regions of Trnava and Bratislava
• Interreg V-A programme Austria-Czech Republic (cross-border)
  Programme area: Vienna, Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Regions of South Bohemia, South Moravia and Vysočina
• Interreg V-A programme Austria-Hungary (cross-border)
  Programme area: Vienna, Lower Austria, Burgenland, Styria, Counties of Győr-Moson-Sopron, Vas and Zala

The 3 cross-border programmes were approved by the European Commission in summer 2015.

All 3 programmes are funded by the EU with a total of approximately 41 million Euro for the Viennese lead partners. The implementation of cross-border projects in the following fields is subsidised with up to 85 percent of the overall cost:

• research, technical development and innovation
• improving the competitiveness of SMEs
• environmental protection and promotion of sustainable resource use
• promotion of sustainability in transport and traffic
• education and lifelong learning
• improvement of institutional capacities and further development of efficient public administration systems

Co-operation Projects with The Czech Republic (AT-CZ), Hungary (AT-HU) and Slovakia (SK-AT) with Viennese participation for the 2014-2020 period

Research, technical development and innovation

1. Share 4.0 (SK-AT): The overall purpose of the Share 4.0 SK-AT project is to enhance co-operation among key players in research and innovation through new forms of co-operation and viable work processes. The aim is to plan and implement direct, long-term oriented pilot projects ensuring a high level of effectiveness in 2 selected areas: industrial assistance systems and resilient, sustainable production systems.
2. Age-friendly Region (AT-HU): The project develops new approaches to enable elderly persons to remain in their accustomed environment while enjoying the highest possible quality of life and independence, at the same time relieving the burden on family members. A joint model of case and care management is formulated on the basis of a mutual exchange of experience and know-how.
3. AI SDT-LAB (AT-CZ): The purpose of this project is to support SMEs located in the Austrian-Czech border region in the use of artificial intelligence.
4. AMB-REMOB (SK-AT): The project wants to compare the existing practice of combining hospital stay and inpatient rehabilitation with the new approach of outpatient remobilisation.
5. AMOR (AT-CZ): This project develops an affordable macro-modelling platform for high-frequency systems and devices (e.g. IoT, e-health, wearable devices, sensor networks, Industry 4.0, home automation, smart meters, radio identification et cetera). The modelling platform on the one hand permits measuring key high-frequency parameters at a price that is affordable for start-ups and on the other hand allows for the preparation of mathematical models that can be used in the development process via simulation software.
6. CAPSID (SK-AT): The focus of the CAPSID project is on the creation of scientific capacities in biomedical research and on the development of research services. The innovation potential of the region as well as its attractiveness for highly qualified, internationally trained scientists are thus to be increased.
7. CEPI (AT-HU): This cross-border co-operation between universities in Austria and Hungary examines the influence of feeding on the health and resilience of poultry species. At the same time, the project aims to analyse the effects of the feeding mode on product quality and food safety.
8. DIGI-O (AT-HU): The general purpose of the project is to strengthen cross-border co-operation between trade unions and labour market stakeholders by developing a network on working with digitalisation.
9. DREAM SK-AT (SK-AT), SEDDON II (AT-HU) und SEDECO (AT-CZ): Together with the IGE-funded project RRMC Hydraulic Engineering Lab, these are subprojects of the main project DREAM, which is financed across several programmes. DREAM is considered a flagship project of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region. Its key element is the construction of a hydraulic engineering lab near the Brigittenauer Sporn site on the river. The differential head at this location can result in a freely-flowing flume discharge of up to 10 cubic meters per second - this discharge volume in an experimental flume (without the need for pumps) is unique in Europe. The hydraulic engineering lab will thus serve as an innovative research facility for international research co-operation. This will be complemented by research in the context of the above cross-border projects (water management, sediment management, integrated river management).
10. INPOMED (AT-HU): The objective of this project lies in learning about the respective regional conditions governing poultry keeping and poultry medicine and in fostering more intensive scientific co-operation between research institutions and veterinarians specialising in poultry. Moreover, the research infrastructure in both project sites is to be identified and a plan for its optimised joint use is to be developed. Another important aspect of this project lies in research work on the intestinal health of poultry.
11. InterOP (AT-CZ): The InterOP project is dedicated to the interoperability (i.e. the improved usability) of heterogeneous radio systems from an operative angle. Measurements and analyses are carried out to understand and model interference effects for various wireless scenarios. Innovative tools for planning and testing new radio systems while taking account of typical interferences are developed and made available to regional enterprises and multipliers.
12. IMPROVE! (AT-HU): The IMPROVE! project is to promote both the co-operation between enterprises engaging with digital change and the cross-border interactions between organisations.
13. Competence Center for Mechanobiology (AT-CZ): This project pursues the strategy of supporting the body's self-healing powers in order to restore dysfunctional cells and tissues with relatively inexpensive methods, thus reducing therapy costs. Another key objective lies in drawing on shared methods and technologies to ensure the efficient utilisation of very expensive large-scale equipment situated in different locations.
14. Nutriaging (SK-AT): This project is devoted to strengthening the nutritional and health awareness of elderly persons. The objective lies in achieving improved quality of life in old age by increasing the number of healthy life years. The project involves both elderly persons and the "elderly-to-be” as well as healthcare workers and workers in geriatric care. Joint project results include e.g. nutrition guidelines, events and a new tertiary training module.
15. PlastoCyan (AT-CZ): The PlastoCyan project investigates an alternative production process for sustainable plastics. Its focus is on the use of wastewater from the dairy industry and from municipal sewage plants to produce Polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) with the help of cyanobacteria. PHB is a biodegradable and biobased thermoplastic polymer, which is synthesised in a sustainable and natural way by using carbon dioxide from microorganisms. Cyanobacteria use photosynthesis to bind carbon dioxide and turn it into industrially relevant substances like PHB. The aim of the project is to establish a new production process based on the recycling of wastewaters, which will not only contribute to resource-efficient waste management but also promote the sustainable production of plastics from cyanobacteria.
16. PredMAIn (AT-CZ): The PredMAIn project focuses on supporting SMEs in using artificial intelligence for predictive maintenance and thus helping them to increase and/or maintain their competitiveness.
17. RIAT-CZ (AT-CZ): It is the aim of this project to increase the research and innovation potential in the Austrian-Czech border region. The provision of technical equipment of importance for research projects in the life sciences and the bio/nanotech sector is to be increasingly organised on a cross-border basis. This will give researchers and companies access to a wider range of technologies, while research infrastructure operators will be able to make better use of synergies.
18. SAFERBRIDGE (AT-CZ): The core objective of this project lies in the creation of holistic evaluation methods for bridge systems to identify damage and problems relating to bridge structures at an early date. This is to enhance the efficient and targeted use of limited budgets for bridge maintenance. These evaluation methods are made accessible to engineering firms and infrastructure operators in the region.
19. SEED Hub (SK-AT): The overarching goal of the project is to develop an effective cross-border Austrian-Slovak network of social enterprises - the SEED Network, which facilitates cross-border transfer of know-how and experience in the field of social entrepreneurship. The SEED training programme contributes to the development of human capital in the social economy sector and creates conditions for flourishing economic partnerships in the social economy ecosystem within the cross-border programme area (Trnava region, Bratislava region, Northern and Central Burgenland, City of Vienna and Lower Austria).
20. StruBioMol (SK-AT): In the context of this project, modern equipment for the disciplines of structural biology, biomedicine and biotechnology is purchased to enable the project partners to conduct research and education activities corresponding to a much higher standard. At the same time, this equipment is also to be made accessible to students, researchers and external scientists. The objective lies in creating a centre of excellence for tertiary education based on scientific research in the field of structural biology in the Austrian-Slovak border region.
21. Testbed exchange (AT-CZ): The aim of this project is to create a functioning network of testbeds in the programme area to provide a platform to encourage in-depth communication, mutual learning and exchange of experience. In addition, the network is to stimulate specific research or development projects in the fields of decentralised process control, intelligent cyber-physical systems and other Industry 4.0 related topics.

Environmental protection and promotion of sustainable resource use

1. Agrinatur (AT-HU): This project focuses on increasing biodiversity in nature reserves through anthropogenic use. Special attention is paid to plant and animal habitats as well as to habitats and recognised species protected under the (Wild Birds) Directive. Innovative landscape management measures are developed by combining traditional species conservation with new agricultural techniques. The resulting interactions are communicated and made to come alive for visitors, e.g. in the Viennese section of the Danube Floodplains National Park.
2. AGRISAN (AT-CZ): The project introduces an innovative method which ensures a transparent, practicable and simple comparison of soils by means of 6 basic indicators to quantify soil quality, i.e. soil health. Indicators are used to test soils in selected locations. Different parameters and soil indicators are used to compare anthrosols with the nearest plot of natural soil that has not been affected by artificial cultivation. These comparisons support the practical implementation of methodical procedures, which will have an impact on agriculturally cultivated soils whose parameters resemble as closely as possible those of natural soils.
3. Bluehlinge (SK-AT): The central objective pursued by the project lies in creating awareness of the importance of biodiversity, with a focus on butterflies as lead insects. Special attention is paid to measures promoting biodiversity as well as to the communication of knowledge (garden design, mowing techniques, butterfly app et cetera). Finally, interactive "junctions” with adventure paths and informative displays are created, e.g. in the area around Vienna's former Northern Railway Station, an urban development zone.
4. CEWA (AT-CZ): The central objective of the CEWA project lies in identifying an optimised process to minimise waste and maximise waste recycling by following the principles of a closed-cycle economy, with a focus on applicability in the Czech-Austrian border region.
5. City Nature (SK-AT): This project concentrates on nature in the city, i.e. on the importance of the management of cultivated land and meadows for biodiversity in green spaces of Vienna and Bratislava. The key goal lies in the development of methods and communication tools for the preservation and stabilisation of biodiversity and ecosystem services.
6. INTEKO (AT-CZ): The project aims to develop innovative technologies to ensure consistent compost quality. This technology is to improve the reclaiming of organic substances, phosphorus and nitrogen from organic waste.
7. PlasticFreeDanube (SK-AT): This project focuses on macroplastics pollution (> 5 mm) in and along the Danube. Core objectives include the establishment of a solid knowledge base and joint standardised methods to evaluate pollution sources, quantities, transport behaviour and environmental hazards. A joint action plan is developed to reduce the quantity of plastics polluting the Danube in the long run. Moreover, pilot measures for waste avoidance are tested on Vienna's Danube Island.
8. SYM:BIO (AT-CZ): The project aims to network those players in the field of biodiversity-promoting and aridity-adapted green space design and management as well as bioeconomics that have an effect on the community as a whole. These players include above all public administrative and self-governing organisations, municipal services, training institutions, nongovernmental nonprofit organisations working with the general public and with young people, and - last but not least - local action groups concerned with preparing municipal planning and strategic plans for the development of administrative areas.

Education and lifelong learning

1. ANIMATION NOW (AT-CZ): The "Animation Now” project aims at facilitating intensive cross-border co-operation to develop ideas for innovative, modern and creative media work for children and young people. Exchange visits will allow the staff of the two participating organisations to gain an understanding of the work processes of the other organisation and will provide them with new ideas for their educational work with children and young people, workshop methods and contents and the basic concepts of the two participating studios. BIG (AT-HU, AT-CZ, SK-AT): Multilingual education is no longer to be offered by schools in isolated fashion or as an optional programme, but rather integrated into the educational learning environment of kindergartens and schools. Towards this aim, a new overall concept of comprehensive language education (comprising teaching methods and curricula) is developed and tested at selected kindergartens and pilot schools.
2. BIG-inn (AT-HU): This cross-border co-operation aims to strengthen the linguistic, scientific, technical and digital skills of schoolchildren. The innovative approach pursued lies in drawing on regional potentials (e.g. museums, enterprises, nature reserves, energy generation) as places of learning and using them as resources for the cross-border learning space to promote the development of educational competences.
3. BIG_ling SK-AT (SK-AT): The project wants to broaden language acquisition (neighbouring languages/multilingualism) by adding elements of exploratory, discovery and physically active learning with a focus on digital technologies, natural sciences and engineering and place it into a wider context of education for sustainable development. Another innovative approach is that regional potentials (e.g. nature protection areas, enterprises) are discovered as places for out-of-classroom learning and are used as an educational resource.
4. CARLiS (SK-AT): The main purpose of this project is the development of tools and capacities at high-quality universities and research institutions in Bratislava and Vienna. The major outcome of the project is a comprehensive training programme to prepare Ph.D. students for a career outside academic research, particularly in the business sector focusing on the sector of life sciences.
5. Co-Age Volunteers (SK-AT): The general goal of the project is to promote closer/better cross-border co-operation between volunteer organisations, public institutions, civil society organisations and other stakeholders in the Slovak-Austrian border region to strengthen intergenerational volunteering and support voluntary education and training.
6. CODES (AT-HU): The project focuses on the strengthening of European key competences among schoolchildren aged 6 to 10 years to prepare them as best possible for future skill requirements in the European labour market. For this purpose, a cross-border education network is being established in order to implement a long-term overall package of measures and, in this context, to develop teaching materials and on-the-job training measures.
7. DigiMe (AT-CZ): It is the overarching objective of this project to improve digital education in Austria and the Czech Republic (schools in the project regions of South Moravia, Vysočina and Vienna) in the long term and to prepare young people to cope with the demands of the digital labour market.
8. DigiUp4.0 (AT-HU): It is the overarching objective of this project to improve the awareness of young people aged 12 to 24 years in choosing an apprenticeship, to prepare them for the labour market by means of upskilling, to strengthen the image of apprenticeships, to identify occupations where a shortage of qualified personnel is to be expected in the near future and to enable cross-border exchange. Through career guidance and training measures, young people are to be familiarised with the industrial sector and provided with the necessary digital skills.
9. EDLRIS (AT-HU): This project is dedicated to the development and implementation of a professional, standardised and internationally recognised training and certification system for robotics and artificial intelligence. The target group comprises trainers (e.g. teachers or mentors of clubs/associations) and trainees (e.g. schoolchildren or young people). The basic concept resembles that of the well-established European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL).
10. EDUGARD (AT-CZ): This project serves to develop an education framework for horticultural pedagogy, with a special focus on the practical use of school-owned lots, areas and gardens for horticultural pedagogy. The project involves schoolchildren, teachers and student teachers.
11. EduSTEM (AT-CZ): EduSTEM promotes education and networking at various levels in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
12. ENARIS (AT-HU): The project aims at promoting the interest and enthusiasm towards as well as providing a basic understanding of artificial intelligence. For this purpose, the project pursues a two-tier approach: On the one hand it wants to spark the interest in AI among young people aged 10 to 14 years and facilitate a basic technical understanding. In this context, the involvement of teachers using a train-the-trainer approach will ensure a broad and sustainable dissemination. On the other hand, open, low-threshold activities are intended to raise the awareness for social, economic and technical aspects of AI among the general public (children, parents, apprentices, working persons et cetera).
13. IN VITRA (SK-AT): The purpose of the project is to optimise the transfer of knowledge regarding the training of doctors and medical professionals between the two participating universities, to build the necessary infrastructure and to offer adequate teacher training in this field. Particularly against the background of increasing digitalisation, the aim is to establish a functional integration of traditional and virtual anatomy in innovative, cross-border anatomy courses and training schemes.
14. RoboCoop (SK-AT): The project is dedicated to the exploitation of the multidisciplinary potential of robotics and to the establishment of cross-border educational activities to stimulate interest in MINT subjects (mathematics, information technology, natural sciences and technology).

Culture and tourism

1. (AT CZ kulinarisch (AT-CZ): The aim of the project is to pursue the two countries' joint culinary heritage, to find the joint roots of their food cultures, work on a database and create a knowledge base for further follow-up investigations in the fields of food history and culture.
2. Bilateral Design Networks (AT-CZ): The project "Bilateral Design Networks. Design Innovations from the Modern Age around 1900 to the Digital Modern Age” aims at the preservation, protection and widespread dissemination of Central European Modernism. Core activities include inter alia new and extended exhibitions in Brno and Brtnice and an exhibition cycle at the Vienna Museum of Applied Arts. These activities are complemented by workshops and other events focusing on arts, crafts and innovations in the field of design, in this way also involving the creative sector.
3. border(hi)stories (AT-HU): It is the overarching objective of this project to improve the level of knowledge regarding historical facts relating to the border region and to establish, intensify and reliably safeguard in the long term co-operation between organisations communicating this knowledge. This will result first of all in a digital inventory of sites of memory, where all documents, specialist literature and visual materials are rendered publicly accessible and retrievable.
4. Design and Innovation (SK-AT): It is the aim of the project to establish a research co-operation venture between Vienna and Bratislava, with the ultimate goal of becoming thematic leaders in design and innovation research. This serves to develop novel design strategies and to communicate them to a broader audience.
5. GJM200 (AT-CZ): The main goal of the project is to put a spotlight on the person of Gregor Johann Mendel and his genetic laws. For this purpose, the project seeks to establish long-term cross-border co-operation to advertise and cultivate Mendel's legacy. The core of the project consists in developing a joint strategy to popularise Mendel's teachings. This strategy comprises, among other things, press conferences and scientific symposia featuring several international lecture series and a cultural programme for the interested public. Activities include the organisation of Citizen Science Workshops at the Natural History Museum in Vienna with lectures and experiments for and with the public audience.
6. JH neu digital (AT-CZ): The project responds to the uncertain situation resulting from the COVID-19 regulations and presents Josef Hoffmann's legacy by means of digital technologies, making it available to an interested audience all across the world. A subsequent international conference held at the MAK provides a platform where an interdisciplinary audience can discuss how to transfer the principles of the "Wiener Werkstätte” arts and crafts association into the present.

Transport

• Clean Mobility (SK-AT): The "Clean Mobility” project aims at improving clean mobility services in the border region between Slovakia and Austria by -increasing the integration of cross-border transport information (improved travel information systems will make it easier for potential passengers to use public transport)
  1. promoting multimodal mobility services at existing public transport hubs (improved access to means of mobility such as buses, trains, bicycles, demand-oriented forms of mobility like micro public transport) and
  2. by strengthening the awareness of the advantages of using clean mobility among the local population (information campaigns and "clean mobility multipliers” as sources of information for clean mobility).

2. EU funding period 2021-2027

For 2021-2027, Vienna's lead partners participating in the 3 existing cross-border Interreg programmes have been allocated a total of 25.2 million Euro of ERDF funds.

The final drafts of the programme documents for the two Interreg programmes Austria-Czech Republic 2021-2027 and Austria-Hungary 2021-2027 were submitted to the European Commission in January 2022. Both programmes are now awaiting approval. The final draft of the programme document for the Slovakia-Austria 2021-2027 programme was submitted at the end of March.

The Austria-Czech Republic and Austria-Hungary programmes are expected to start at the end of September 2022, so that the first project proposals are likely to be submitted as of October 2022.

The Slovakia-Austria programme will be launched with a delay of about 3 months, with project proposals being expected from January 2023 onwards.

INTERREG programme CENTRAL EUROPE 2014-2020 (transnational)

Since 2007, the EU's Interreg CENTRAL EUROPE funding programme, for which MA27 acts as the administrative authority, has co-financed transnational co-operation projects in the EU's Central European Member States of Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia. In 2014, Croatia has joined the programme.

The programme encourages cooperation towards a smarter, greener, better connected and better integrated Central Europe. Project partners will receive co-financing of up to 80 percent for their activities.

The first call for proposals under the new funding programme for the period 2021-2027 was launched at the end of 2021.

Ongoing and completed CENTRAL EUROPE projects with Viennese projekt coordiantion from the 2014-2020 period

Vienna's project partners received about 11 million Euro of the overall budget of 247 million Euro allocated to the Interreg CENTRAL EUROPE programme for the period 2014-2020. Eight of the 138 CENTRAL EUROPE projects receiving funding have a lead partner based in Vienna:

1. CERIecon: This project pursues the focus of entrepreneurship education and aims to promote sustainability-oriented entrepreneurial spirit. A special role is assigned to the "playparks” implemented in each project region, where mostly young people with sustainable business ideas receive professional support.
2. PROLINE-CE Here, the focus is on the development of a cross-border manual for efficient practices of drinking water resource protection and non-structural flood mitigation by means of optimised measures of land use and land management.
3. GeoPlasma-CE: The project addresses modern planning and management approaches for the exploitation of geothermal energy in Central European regions. In Austria, the focus is on the use of geothermal energy in urban spaces, including the Aspern area of Vienna.
4. SHAREPLACE: This project deals with the fact that current Central European transport systems often present a lack of integration between different transport modes. Thus it is the goal of the project to develop an innovative approach to improve the networking of local, regional and transnational mobility systems.
5. STREFOWA: The project develops strategies for the efficient use of foodstuffs and the avoidance of food waste. The results of the project contribute to improving the level of knowledge about food waste, both for producers and consumers. Ultimately, optimised waste management is also to contribute to minimising negative environmental impacts.
6. SUSTREE: Against the backdrop of climate change, which is increasingly jeopardising the diversity of Central European forests, the project is concerned with identifying forest-genetic diversity and developing seed paths and transboundary seed transfers.
7. IN SITU: This project promotes the labour market integration of unskilled young and older (over 50 years of age) unemployed persons.
8. CERUSI: The project builds on the results gained from other EU projects with a focus on social innovation in rural areas. The project develops skills and capacities for social innovation and social enterprises.

Completed funding programmes 2007-2013

In the 2007-2013 period, the three cross-border EU programmes involving Vienna disposed of EU funding to the extent of approximately 41 million Euro.

With the support of these EU funds, it was possible to implement projects in areas including economy and labour market, education, regional planning and transport, environment, research and development, health and networks.

In the 2007-2013 period, the CENTRAL EUROPE programme handled a budget of 246 million of EU funds. This amount was disbursed for projects addressing four thematic focuses (sustainable urban development, innovation and research, environment, accessibility), which received funding to the tune of 75 percent to 85 percent.