SARS-CoV-2 relief efforts and funding opportunities

The purpose of this overview is to help the companies and research institutions in our network to quickly find the information on open calls and relief efforts they need.

1. Support at the EU level and further international actions
2. Measures in Austria
3. Complementary support opportunities in Vienna
4. Further resources

The LISAvienna team is still here for you, and we can also provide support by phone, e-mail or online conferences. 

1. Support at the EU level and further international actions

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a large number of research infrastructures has set up specific services, such as rapid or fast track access, to speed up research. This is a great resource to develop the solutions needed right now. Click here for an overview. The list for example includes biobanks and services for the design, planning and management of multinational clinical trials.

The European Commission and EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), together with EU Member States and research partners such as ELIXIR, are deploying a dedicated European COVID-19 Data Platform to enable the rapid collection and comprehensive data sharing of available research data from different sources for the European and global research communities. The European COVID-19 Data Platform consists of two connected components:

• SARS-CoV-2 Data Hubs organized the flow of SARS-CoV-2 outbreak sequence data and provide comprehensive open data sharing.
• The COVID-19 Data Portal brings together and continuously updates COVID-19 datasets and tools, hosts sequence data sharing and facilitates access to other SARS-CoV-2 resources. This is the primary entry point into the functions of the European COVID-19 Data Platform.

The InnovFin Infectious Diseases Finance Facility (IDFF) provides financial products ranging from standard debt to equity-type financing for amounts typically between EUR 7.5 million and EUR 75 million, to innovative players active in developing innovative vaccines, drugs, medical and diagnostic devices or novel research infrastructures for combatting infectious diseases. Project costs may include clinical trial costs, set-up of commercialisation such as market access, development of prototypes or industrial roll-out of novel equipment, pre-clinical R&D costs and working capital requirement. The product is being made available directly through the European Investment Bank. Further details are available here.

The Enterprise Europe Network has set up a new European cooperation platform. Companies, research institutions, healthcare organizations and governments are invited to benefit from this online marketplace and have the opportunity to share information on their products, services, projects and initiatives as regards COVID-19. Further details are provided here.

The platform provides information about funding opportunities at EU and national level. It also offers information about Horizon 2020 call deadline extensions, newsly funded projects, FAQs and useful links. The ERA corona platform is one of the 10 priorities of the European Commission and national ministries agreed on the first ERAvsCorona action plan. Click here to go to the ERA corona platform

• Please click here for a broad overview on the coronavirus response at the EU level and read the European Commission’s information. 
• The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is contributing to global efforts to save lives during the COVID-19 pandemic by expediting the development and approval of safe and effective treatments and vaccines, supporting the continued availability of medicines in the European Union (EU), and providing reliable information to patients and healthcare professionals. The COVID-19 EMA pandemic Task Force is the main tool of EMA and the European medicines regulatory network for enabling EU Member States and the European Commission to take quick and coordinated regulatory action during the pandemic.

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2. Measures in Austria

The Austrian Science Fund (FWF) is calling on researchers to submit project proposals for research into humanitarian crises such as epidemics and pandemics within its existing programmes but as part of a new fast track procedure. The goal is to initiate, as quickly as possible, additional high-quality scientific and scholarly projects at research institutions throughout Austria and thus expand capacities and structures, thereby contributing to overcoming the current humanitarian crisis as well as future ones. Expertise of all disciplines sought after. Submissions will be accepted from April 6, 2020 to March 31, 2021. Click here for details on the FWF priority procedures and collaboration opportunities.

Austrian companies carrying out coronavirus tests under medical supervision can get financial support of € 10 per test. Apply in April for the tests you have conducted. Follow this link to the aws website for further details and read the information provided by the Austrian Economic Chamber. In addition, the federal provinces list sources of supply – download WKW’s list with about 55 medical devices sales companies in Vienna here (date: February 18, 2021).

The Austrian Federal Government has presented a new COVID package for start-ups. The following support measures are available:

• COVID Start-up Support Fund: Innovate Start-ups may apply for a grant doubling PE and PE-like investments placed since the beginning of the COVID-crisis. The minimum investment sum is €10,000 and grants need to be paid back in case of success. A total budget of €50 million is available for these grants.
• Guarantees for Venture Capital Funds: aws guarantees will be applied to mobilize additional risk capital for start-ups. €25 million will be made available to back up to 50% of fund volumes. Venture Capital Funds will invest €200,000 to €1 million in each start-up selected for an investment.

The aim is to facilitate the financing of working capital loans for companies whose sales and earnings performance is impacted by the loss of orders and deliveries or other market changes as a result of the coronavirus crisis.
NEW: 100% guarantee rate for loans up to €500,000 and 90% for loans up to €27.7 million!
Click here for information about the expanded and simplified aws guarantee.

Investments of companies of all sizes and branches are supported in Austria. Grants for upgrading or extending business premises and for securing or creating jobs and training positions are available. Apply at aws for 7% of your investment costs or for 14% when investing in measures that contribute to protecting the environment, digitalization or health related topics. The basis of calculation ranges from € 5,000 to € 5 million. Additional information is available on the aws website.

The federal government has announced to grant operating cost subsidies to support the Austrian economy. Applications can be submitted via FinanzOnline as of May 20, 2020. Additional details are available here.

The Backstop fund installed by the Austrian Federal Government supports self-employed people. Following the doubling of the budget and an extension of the eligibility criteria, phase 2 funding has started. Further details are available here.

Please also read the summary provided by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs. In addition, the Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance provides information on tax related relief efforts and support. Furthermore, we recommend the special coronavirus website operated by ABA. To help companies and research institutions to quickly find new opportunities for support that are launched at the EU-level, a special FFG website has summarizes updates on open calls and initiatives.

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3. Complementary support opportunities in Vienna

Wien Holding has founded a new association named "Stolz auf Wien" Beteiligungs GmbH that takes shares in strategically relevant Viennese companies that are at risk because of the coronavirus-crisis. An initial funding volume of € 50 million will be made available. The City of Vienna will provide € 20 million, Wirtschaftskammer Wien and additional private partners will provide € 30 million.

• max. € 1 million per company
• max. 20% shares
• exit after max. 7 years

Details are available here.

waff and the Vienna Public Employment Service (AMS) can support Vienna-based companies in a variety of ways: from setting up a labor foundation (Arbeitsstiftung) when staff need to be made redundant to providing training for employees during a period of further education leave or while they are working reduced hours. If redundancies are unavoidable, labour foundations offer the employees affected the opportunity to make a career change. The municipality of Vienna provides financial assistance to participants who live in Vienna. Funds for such foundations have been increased by € 3 million. Additional details on labor foundations and crisis management are provided here.

Guarantees of up to € 500,000  are available for Viennese SMEs - wired to the respective companies’ banks. The City of Vienna and WKW each provide € 5 million for this new WKBG guarantee program and defray the costs for commissions and the service fee. Click here for more details about the WKBG stop-gap aid.

Access the Vienna Business Agency’s brief summary on support measures for Viennese businesses by following this link.

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4. Further resources

• Please pay attention to the information regarding protective masks, ventilators, 3D printing and COVID-19 tests provided by BASG.
• The European standards for medical supplies have been made freely available to facilitate an increase of production.

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This list is not exhaustive. Feel free to contact us at news(at)LISAvienna.at to request any additions or changes. We will update this page on an ongoing basis.