The COMET network is being expanded by six COMET modules and eight COMET projects. The Ministry of Climate Protection and the Ministry of Economic Affairs are providing around 22 million euros in federal funding for this. A further 11 million euros will be financed by the participating federal states.
“Research and innovation are essential when it comes to tackling the climate crisis decisively and intelligently, driving forward the energy transition innovatively and paving the way for a climate-friendly and sustainable economy. The COMET competence centers develop solutions for these key issues and support companies and research institutions on the path to a climate-neutral future,” says Climate Protection Minister Leonore Gewessler.
“In order to develop innovative and practicable solutions for current and future challenges, science and industry also need to work together in the field of research. This is why we, the federal government, are investing 22 million euros in top-level Austrian research as part of the COMET network. This is an important step that will lead, among other things, to an increase in the competitiveness of Austrian companies,” emphasized Minister of Labour and Economic Affairs Martin Kocher when announcing the funding decision.
“As a flagship research funding program, the COMET program has played a key role in shaping the domestic research landscape for more than 20 years. With the COMET projects, we have created an attractive offer to enter the COMET program. The primary goal of the COMET modules is to enable new high-risk research for existing COMET centers and to translate research results into concrete applications and products,” explain Henrietta Egerth and Karin Tausz, Managing Directors of the Austrian Research Promotion Agency FFG.
The thematic focus of the newly approved COMET modules lies in the areas of digitalization, life sciences, production, energy and the environment. The six funded COMET modules at a glance (in alphabetical order):
“BattLab – High performance battery systems driven by polymer science and virtual material engineering”
Polymer Competence Center Leoben GmbH
Participating federal state: Styria
“ClimaSens – Climate-sensitive Adaptive Planning for Shaping Resilient Cities”
VRVis Center for Virtual Reality and Visualization Forschungs-GmbH
Province involved: Vienna
“LEC FFF – Future Fuel Fundamentals”
LEC GmbH
Provinces involved: Styria, Tyrol
“PlasmArc4Green – Simulation, Modeling and Monitoring of Plasma and Arc based Processes for Green Metal Production”
K1-MET GmbH
Provinces involved: Upper Austria, Styria, Tyrol
“PlasmArc4Green – Simulation, Modeling and Monitoring of Plasma and Arc based Processes for Green Metal Production”
K1-MET GmbH
Participating federal states: Upper Austria, Styria, Tyrol
“Repairtecture – Innovative repair concepts for polymer-based materials and components along their lifetime”
Polymer Competence Center Leoben GmbH
Provinces involved: Styria, Upper Austria
“Twin4Pharma – Digital and Green (Twin) Transition of Pharmaceutical Product and Process Development”
Research Center Pharmaceutical Engineering GmbH
Participating federal state: Styria
The thematic focus of the newly approved COMET projects lies in the areas of digitalization, life sciences, mobility, production, energy and the environment. The eight funded COMET projects at a glance (in alphabetical order):
“bio-ART – Bio-based and resource-efficient thermosets for demanding applications”
Montanuniversität Leoben – Chair of Materials Science and Testing of Plastics
Participating federal state: Styria
“DiMo-NEXT – The Next Level of Digital Motion in Sports, Fitness and Well-being”
Salzburg Research Forschungsgesellschaft m.b.H.
Provinces involved: Salzburg, Upper Austria, Tyrol
“ECHODA – Energy Efficient Cooling and Heating of Domestic Appliances”
Graz University of Technology Institute of Thermodynamics and Sustainable Drive Systems
Province involved: Styria
“Green Zinc – CO2 Neutral Zero Waste Solution for Zinc Recycling”
University of Leoben – Chair of Non-Ferrous Metallurgy
Provinces involved: Styria, Carinthia, Tyrol
“Hylley – Research into Competitive and Practical Heavy Duty Hydrogen Engines”
Graz University of Technology Institute of Thermodynamics and Sustainable Propulsion Systems
Provinces involved: Styria, Tyrol
“N!CA – Digitalization of Innovative Care Processes to Unburden and Empower Nurses”
Medical University of Graz Clinical Department of Endocrinology and Diabetology
Participating federal state: Styria
“ProMetHeus – PROduction and processing of METals for High-performance, Energy Efficiency, environmental protection a. Sustainability”
LKR Light Metal Competence Center Ranshofen
Participating federal states: Upper Austria, Lower Austria, Styria
“PI-SENS – Personalized Medicine enabled by Intelligent SEnsing Systems”
Danube Private University GmbH
Provinces involved: Lower Austria, Tyrol
About:
The COMET Programme bundles scientific competence and technological know-how in very specific thematic areas. In the Centres, companies and research partners work closely together and thus enable direct transfer of new knowledge into market-ready products and services.
COMET Centres set research impulses and initiate new innovations for products, processes and service. As a result, they significantly improve the capacity for innovation of companies and help to develop solutions for key issues of the future, such as climate protection, digitalisation, mobility and health. They strengthen Austria as a research and business location and have a great importance for the education of young scientists.
COMET Centres are funded by the Republic of Austria and the participating provinces as well as the involved companies and research organisations. Science and economy jointly define a research programme with a medium to long term perspective, the implementation and success of which is evaluated. The COMET Programme is, on the part of the federal government, financed by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Economy and the Federal Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology and processed by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency.
