COMET

COMET - Competence Centers for Excellent Technologies

Competence Centers for Excellent Technologies

The competence centres programmes launched in 1998 are among the most successful technology policy initiatives in Austria. Today, some 1,500 researchers from science and industrywork on jointly defined research programmes at more than 40 centres. The programmes are internationally recognised as Best-Practice models.

Owner of programme / investor

Main research interests	Human resources, Information technology, Life sciences, Materials and production, Mobility, Security, Environment and energy, Further issues, Space
Instrument	Funding
Project type	Demonstration programmes and preparation of product launch, Science and development – application oriented, Science and development – fundamental approach, Research infrastructure, Gender activities, Human resources, Feasibility studies, Miscellaneous, Technology transfer, Networking
FFG Unit of organisation	Structural programmes

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Building on these experiences the programme COMET - Competence Centres for Excellent Technologies has been launched.Special supportwill be given to those research activities which operate at the cutting-edge and which also promise a high international profile. The competences of the players working at the centres are to be bundled to a greater extent than in the past, with the aim of systematically leveraging content-related synergies in order to obtain a global competitive advantage. Finally, the programme should also make a major contribution to developing human resources in Austria with attractive offers for researchers.

Focus and target groups

The programme addresses existing competence centres and networks, as well as new consortia with participants from science and industry.
All three programme lines are thematically open. However, every centre and every research project must have a defined theme.

COMET is sponsored by the Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT) and the Ministry of Economy, Family and Youth (BMWFJ), which are following up on the success of their previous competence centre programmes. The Austrian provinces also support COMET with additional funds.
The Austrian Research Promotion Agency FFG is responsible for the management of COMET.