projekte
 

 





Projects 2018


Connecting Austria

After presenting and discussing Connecting Austria to an international expert group the Austrian Funding Agency FFG recommended funding Connecting Austria to the Austrian Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology.  (bmvit/Innovationssektion: 9. Ausschreibung Program Mobilität der Zukunft: Leitprojekt für automatisiertes Fahren, Frühjahr 2017). The project started January, 2nd 2018.

Connecting Austria's focus is on (semi)automated energy efficient truck convoys. What are pre-requisites and accompanying measures to prepare the future of energy efficient and safe (semi)autonomous truck convoys.

Connecting Austria researches, develops, demonstrates and evaluates on Use Case #5 "Gut versorgt" as listed in Austrian Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology's Strategy (Automatisiert – Vernetzt – Mobil, June 2016). Key objective is evidence-based evaluation of energy-efficient truck convoys as a prerequisite for competitive strength of two Austrian lead industries (logistics and telematic supply) and related research excellence. An Austrian lighthouse project 2018 to 2021 cannot possibly repeat other international project designs in the field. Connecting Austria focusses on specific topics from the perspective of a small transit country with challenging topography and bundles national innovation excellence. What is needed to safely and efficiently set up an energy-efficient convoy, to maintain a convoy, and to go back to a regular transport mode?

Partners in the Austrian Lighthouse Project Connecting Austria are Association High Tech Marketing (consortium spokesperson), Swarco Futurit, Siemens Austria AG, Andata, TRANSDANUBIA, Automotive Cluster Upper Austria, Austrian Road Safety Board, Technical University Vienna (IMM), University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (Center for Global Change and Sustainability), Logistikum Steyr, Software Competence Centre Hagenberg, IESTA – Institute for advanced Energy Systems & Transport Applications, Virtual Vehicle Competence Centre, Graz.

LOI-Partner in Connecting Austria are ASFINAG, representatives of Hallein and Vienna as well as ZF Friedrichshafen AG. Project website www.connecting-austria.at is currently set-up and will provide detailled information soon. In case of any questions you can contact the project manager Wolfgang Schildorfer (HiTec, connecting-austria@hitec.at, +43 1 718 25 30 17). 


Projects 2017


WienZWA - autonomous driving lab Vienna

Consortium: HiTec (Coordinator), Andata, Smart Safety Solutions - Kuratorium für Verkehrssicherheit and Swarco Futurit.

WienZWA – Zukunft Wird Automatisiert (Future will come automated) is currently setting up an integrated, open innovation, real-world, mixed-traffic testing environment for automated driving in Vienna, Austria. This is designed to strengthen European competitive position by means of fast forward learning how dynamic anticipation between pedestrians, two-wheelers and (semi)-automated vehicles is rewired in our behaviour every day anew. 

DOWNLOAD: WienZWA - Zukunft Wird Automatisiert. Information: "Wer sind wir?"

DOWNLOAD: Press-Release: The Austrian Test region for automated driving “WienZWA – Zukunft Wird Automatisiert” achieves first project milestone: KFV – conference on Automated Driving: Road Safety and the Human Factor at Techgate Vienna.(March 23, 2017)"


Projects 2016

Living Lab Urban mobility Vienna TWO=ZWA - "Future will be different" 

The Living Lab urban mobility ViennaTWO=ZWA – "Future will be different" researches effective answers to emerging challenges in urban mobility and intelligent traffic coordination mechanisms – using Vienna as case and real world example. Dynamic challenges will be "fuelling" radically new innovation in the years to come: rapid growth in population, increasing goods transport (online shopping), residential areas reaching and blending with industrial areas (harbors, railroad terminals, container terminals), rapidly increasing expectations into affordable sustainable mobility as well as further differentiated innovative lifestyles around always-online-mobile-devices. Living Lab WienZWA aims at bundling known Austrian strengths in telematics and urban mobility solution providers in order to proactively prepare the ground for future economic prosperity and valid development competences in Vienna-based international companies. Increasing international visibility of both – outstanding Viennese approaches as well as Vienna-based development knowledge on challenging questions across company boundaries and traditional research approaches is a key element in this living lab: [radically new approaches to traffic management across transport modes; progressing towards vision zero, I2V communication – how could this shape urban mobility?, City logistic – what approaches enable innovation where trucks with highest ambition in delivering to highest customer expectations will not dominate newly emerging collaborative urban mobility?]

Living Lab WienZWA establishes a framework and safe space for the emergence of new knowledge by means of open innovation pooled over several international players. An entirely unique data-pool on yet emerging innovative real-world urban mobility and urban lifestyles enables proactively researching new approaches in pre-competitive development stages. Some 20000 pioneering expert users (empowered in self-reflecting emerging innovative mobility) will exchange with researchers and living lab staff on a non-hierarchical peer-to-peer basis. This lays the ground for sustainable social, technical and organizational innovation. Entirely in the truest sense of the best living labs these 20000 Viennese citizens will not receive mere questionnaires or being guinea pigs / laboratory rats but will be empowered to (self)reflect yet emerging urban mobility lifestyles. Intended connotations of the colloquial nick naming ZWA (two in English) are diversity issues ("The other") as well as the high export orientation of all Austria-based industrial knowledge base (small home market phenomenon).

This text, the preparatory work as well as the living lab management show clear signs of the specific style and approach of two known experts on urban living labs who currently evaluate large-scale German Living Labs on behalf of four German federal ministries. The consortium is supported by a steering board of distinguished international representatives (including the captain of the largest urban mobility living lab Stuttgart / Baden-Württemberg). When some two thirds of cities worldwide are facing severe financial constraints and even the remaining wealthy group shows clear signs of hesitation in investing into new forms of urban mobility "solutions" – entirely new approaches and concepts are needed: to enable and address these is the mission of this breeding ground and green house: Living Lab Wien ZWA.


Evaluierung des deutschen Schaufensterprogramms Elektromobilität 

Germany will take a leading role in electromobility – both industry and market. Germany’s government has funded four regional electromobility clusters from 2012 to 2016 with 180 million Euros cofounding supporting German electromobility activities. Those clusters are: LivingLab BWe mobil (Baden-Württemberg), Internationales Schaufenster Elektromobilität Berlin-Brandenburg, Unsere Pferdestärken werden elektrisch (Lower-Saxony/ Niedersachsen), Elektromobilität verbindet (Bavaria-Saxony / Bayern-Sachsen). In total all four clusters add up to some 90 projects as well as 334 associated projects.

The consortium of Wuppertal Institut (Germany), Ernst Basler + Partner (Swiss) and HiTec Marketing (Austria) has been evaluating the programme in the period from 2014 to 2017. The following topics are in the focus of HiTec's contribution to this large-scale pioneering programme evaluation:

  • New mobility models and business models
  • Knowledge flows between industry and science
  • New challenges and impact on education and qualification
  • Exploitation of results (preparation for market take-up)
  • Impact on companys' innovation roadmap
  • Contribution to innovation and efficiency of German industry

MDM-Project Management Support to identify and support key customers

Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen (BASt) operates the project ‚Metadatenplattform Verkehrsinformationen Individualverkehr‘ for the German ministry of transport (Bundes­ministerium für Verkehr, Bau und Stadtentwicklung und Infrastruktur). One key element in this project, a technical platform for sharing traffic data called ‘MDM – Mobilitäts Daten Marktplatz‘ has been developed and was made available to the general public. BASt serves as the MDM operator during this start-up phase. This includes also the identification, support as well as the development of strategic cooperation with MDM-customers.

The consortium of HiTec (Vienna, Austria) and pwp-Systems (Germany) was contracted for the following tasks until 2017.

  • Identification of existing MDM key customers and prospects in close coordination with BAST
  • Analysis and assessment of business processes with identified key customers as well as analysing and increasing a user’s benefits from collaborating with the MDM.
  • Workshops and interviews with new MDM-customers in close coordination with BAST
  • Identification of (new) user requirements of existing and new MDM-users
  • Support of BAST in organising and leading meetings of the MDM user boards
  • Attending BAST meetings to further develop the MDM as well as to develop a sustainable MDM business model for the time after this start-up phase

ECo-AT (European Corridor - Austrian Testbed for Cooperative Systems)

Cooperative services will increase transport efficiency. This contributes to cope with increasing mobility demand in the years to come. Austrian ITS champions have shown their expertise in cooperative services in the lighthouse project Testfeld Telematik. ECo-AT is the Austrian part in a joint Dutch-German-Austrian-initiative preparing the launch of standardised cooperative services from Rotterdam to Vienna. Eco-AT aims at harmonising the last technical and organisational deployment challenges between industry and road operators. The results will be publicly available. Defined use cases can be tested by industry, city representatives as well as road operators in a “living-lab”.

The second phase of the project is the operation of real-world cooperative services including goods transport as well as public transport modes. The Project ECo-AT leverages and increases the impact of the KLiEn-funded projects GIP, VAO as well as Testfeld Telematik.

The project ECo-AT is co-funded by the Austrian Climate and Energy Fund (KLiEn) under the second call of the programme: Innovation on green and efficient mobility: Implementation activities of the national ITS action plans.

Hitec contributes to the following four work packages:

  • Dissemination
  • User Involvement
  • Use Case Definition
  • Definition of Roles and Responsibilitie


National Survey – Competence Map of the Austrian Rail Industry and Austrian Rail Research 

The Austrian Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT, Unit III/4) currently assesses Austrian Rail Industry competences and Austrian Rail Research competences. A competence map will be generated (Kompetenzatlas zu Forschung und Entwicklung in Österreich im Bereich Eisenbahn). The survey includes railway industry, EVU, EIU as well as research institutes (Universities, Research Associations, Universities of Applied Science). HiTec is responsible for design, implementation and analysis of the survey.


The following work packages are part of the survey:

  • Design of the competence map
  • Evaluation of competences of selected key individuals (including research design)
  • Quality assurance of intermediate results with BMVIT as well as key individuals 
  • Evaluation of competences of key individuals
  • Online questionnaire based on lessons learnt of key individuals‘ evaluations 
  • Stakeholder Workshops 
  • Documentation, Report

Projects 2015

 

Living Lab Urban mobility Vienna TWO=ZWA - "Future will be different" 

The Living Lab urban mobility ViennaTWO=ZWA – "Future will be different" researches effective answers to emerging challenges in urban mobility and intelligent traffic coordination mechanisms – using Vienna as case and real world example. Dynamic challenges will be "fuelling" radically new innovation in the years to come: rapid growth in population, increasing goods transport (online shopping), residential areas reaching and blending with industrial areas (harbors, railroad terminals, container terminals), rapidly increasing expectations into affordable sustainable mobility as well as further differentiated innovative lifestyles around always-online-mobile-devices. Living Lab WienZWA aims at bundling known Austrian strengths in telematics and urban mobility solution providers in order to proactively prepare the ground for future economic prosperity and valid development competences in Vienna-based international companies. Increasing international visibility of both – outstanding Viennese approaches as well as Vienna-based development knowledge on challenging questions across company boundaries and traditional research approaches is a key element in this living lab: [radically new approaches to traffic management across transport modes; progressing towards vision zero, I2V communication – how could this shape urban mobility?, City logistic – what approaches enable innovation where trucks with highest ambition in delivering to highest customer expectations will not dominate newly emerging collaborative urban mobility?]

Living Lab WienZWA establishes a framework and safe space for the emergence of new knowledge by means of open innovation pooled over several international players. An entirely unique data-pool on yet emerging innovative real-world urban mobility and urban lifestyles enables proactively researching new approaches in pre-competitive development stages. Some 20000 pioneering expert users (empowered in self-reflecting emerging innovative mobility) will exchange with researchers and living lab staff on a non-hierarchical peer-to-peer basis. This lays the ground for sustainable social, technical and organizational innovation. Entirely in the truest sense of the best living labs these 20000 Viennese citizens will not receive mere questionnaires or being guinea pigs / laboratory rats but will be empowered to (self)reflect yet emerging urban mobility lifestyles. Intended connotations of the colloquial nick naming ZWA (two in English) are diversity issues ("The other") as well as the high export orientation of all Austria-based industrial knowledge base (small home market phenomenon).

This text, the preparatory work as well as the living lab management show clear signs of the specific style and approach of two known experts on urban living labs who currently evaluate large-scale German Living Labs on behalf of four German federal ministries. The consortium is supported by a steering board of distinguished international representatives (including the captain of the largest urban mobility living lab Stuttgart / Baden-Württemberg). When some two thirds of cities worldwide are facing severe financial constraints and even the remaining wealthy group shows clear signs of hesitation in investing into new forms of urban mobility "solutions" – entirely new approaches and concepts are needed: to enable and address these is the mission of this breeding ground and green house: Living Lab Wien ZWA.


Evaluierung des deutschen Schaufensterprogramms Elektromobilität 

Germany will take a leading role in electromobility – both industry and market. Germany’s government has funded four regional electromobility clusters from 2012 to 2016 with 180 million Euros cofounding supporting German electromobility activities. Those clusters are: LivingLab BWe mobil (Baden-Württemberg), Internationales Schaufenster Elektromobilität Berlin-Brandenburg, Unsere Pferdestärken werden elektrisch (Lower-Saxony/ Niedersachsen), Elektromobilität verbindet (Bavaria-Saxony / Bayern-Sachsen). In total all four clusters add up to some 90 projects as well as 334 associated projects.

The consortium of Wuppertal Institut (Germany), Ernst Basler + Partner (Swiss) and HiTec Marketing (Austria) has been evaluating the programme in the period from 2014 to 2017. The following topics are in the focus of HiTec's contribution to this large-scale pioneering programme evaluation:

  • New mobility models and business models
  • Knowledge flows between industry and science
  • New challenges and impact on education and qualification
  • Exploitation of results (preparation for market take-up)
  • Impact on companys' innovation roadmap
  • Contribution to innovation and efficiency of German industry

MDM-Project Management Support to identify and support key customers

Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen (BASt) operates the project ‚Metadatenplattform Verkehrsinformationen Individualverkehr‘ for the German ministry of transport (Bundes­ministerium für Verkehr, Bau und Stadtentwicklung und Infrastruktur). One key element in this project, a technical platform for sharing traffic data called ‘MDM – Mobilitäts Daten Marktplatz‘ has been developed and was made available to the general public. BASt serves as the MDM operator during this start-up phase. This includes also the identification, support as well as the development of strategic cooperation with MDM-customers.

The consortium of HiTec (Vienna, Austria) and pwp-Systems (Germany) was contracted for the following tasks until 2017.

  • Identification of existing MDM key customers and prospects in close coordination with BAST
  • Analysis and assessment of business processes with identified key customers as well as analysing and increasing a user’s benefits from collaborating with the MDM.
  • Workshops and interviews with new MDM-customers in close coordination with BAST
  • Identification of (new) user requirements of existing and new MDM-users
  • Support of BAST in organising and leading meetings of the MDM user boards
  • Attending BAST meetings to further develop the MDM as well as to develop a sustainable MDM business model for the time after this start-up phase

ECo-AT (European Corridor - Austrian Testbed for Cooperative Systems)

Cooperative services will increase transport efficiency. This contributes to cope with increasing mobility demand in the years to come. Austrian ITS champions have shown their expertise in cooperative services in the lighthouse project Testfeld Telematik. ECo-AT is the Austrian part in a joint Dutch-German-Austrian-initiative preparing the launch of standardised cooperative services from Rotterdam to Vienna. Eco-AT aims at harmonising the last technical and organisational deployment challenges between industry and road operators. The results will be publicly available. Defined use cases can be tested by industry, city representatives as well as road operators in a “living-lab”.

The second phase of the project is the operation of real-world cooperative services including goods transport as well as public transport modes. The Project ECo-AT leverages and increases the impact of the KLiEn-funded projects GIP, VAO as well as Testfeld Telematik.

The project ECo-AT is co-funded by the Austrian Climate and Energy Fund (KLiEn) under the second call of the programme: Innovation on green and efficient mobility: Implementation activities of the national ITS action plans.

Hitec contributes to the following four work packages:

  • Dissemination
  • User Involvement
  • Use Case Definition
  • Definition of Roles and Responsibilitie


National Survey – Competence Map of the Austrian Rail Industry and Austrian Rail Research 

The Austrian Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT, Unit III/4) currently assesses Austrian Rail Industry competences and Austrian Rail Research competences. A competence map will be generated (Kompetenzatlas zu Forschung und Entwicklung in Österreich im Bereich Eisenbahn). The survey includes railway industry, EVU, EIU as well as research institutes (Universities, Research Associations, Universities of Applied Science). HiTec is responsible for design, implementation and analysis of the survey.


The following work packages are part of the survey:

  • Design of the competence map
  • Evaluation of competences of selected key individuals (including research design)
  • Quality assurance of intermediate results with BMVIT as well as key individuals 
  • Evaluation of competences of key individuals
  • Online questionnaire based on lessons learnt of key individuals‘ evaluations 
  • Stakeholder Workshops 
  • Documentation, Report

Projects 2014


ECo-AT (European Corridor - Austrian Testbed for Cooperative Systems)

Cooperative services will increase transport efficiency. This contributes to cope with increasing mobility demand in the years to come. Austrian ITS champions have shown their expertise in cooperative services in the lighthouse project Testfeld Telematik. ECo-AT is the Austrian part in a joint Dutch-German-Austrian-initiative preparing the launch of standardised cooperative services from Rotterdam to Vienna. Eco-AT aims at harmonising the last technical and organisational deployment challenges between industry and road operators. The results will be publicly available. Defined use cases can be tested by industry, city representatives as well as road operators in a “living-lab”.

The second phase of the project is the operation of real-world cooperative services including goods transport as well as public transport modes. The Project ECo-AT leverages and increases the impact of the KLiEn-funded projects GIP, VAO as well as Testfeld Telematik.

The project ECo-AT is co-funded by the Austrian Climate and Energy Fund (KLiEn) under the second call of the programme: Innovation on green and efficient mobility: Implementation activities of the national ITS action plans.

Hitec contributes to the following four work packages:
  • Dissemination
  • User Involvement
  • Use Case Definition
  • Definition of Roles and Responsibilities 
     

Projects 2013

PLATON (Processing Light - Advanced Technologies for Optical Nanostructures) photonics collaborative project started in March 2012 the third phase of its seven years total duration. The Austria-wide collaborative project now links 15 partners who cooperate intensively. Main objective of the initial phase has

  • firstly been to prepare for and exploit synergies

  • secondly to foster excellence and

  • thirdly to combine existing Austrian scientific as well as industrial expertise in the area of photonics and nano-technologies in order to increase visibility of Austrian activities in these fields.  

Testfeld Telematik: The deployment project “Testfeld Telematik” is the missing link for the national-wide roll-out of co-operative IV2 Services in Austria. This large scale field test including 3000 test drivers in the Viennese region is realized by 13 partners – including all Austrian technology leaders in the field of cooperative services – in cooperation with the project leader ASFiNAG. For a duration of one year test drivers can experience cooperative services in the test area, such as:

• Display of important traffic signs in the vehicle
• Warning of dangerous situations, congestions, road work
• Weather warnings, etc..

The project (budget € 4.5 Mio) is co-funded by the Austrian Klima und Energiefond KLiEn (Call December 2010, 2. Call Attraktivierung des ÖPNV – Technische Grundlagen) (project duration: March 2011-May 2013).

 

Hitec contributes to:

1) developing an intelligent methodological approach to assess the impact of co-operative IV2 services. Especially for assessing user-focused information, such as user acceptance or usability of services.

2) supporting in the economic and scientific exploitation of results on a national and international level, through exchange with the US DOT and field tests in Asia, as well as through presenting the leading role of Austria in the field of large scale field tests.


Projects 2012

Workshop: "Elements of open Innovation in INNOVAL": Project: INNOVAL L00103, Date: 27/08/2012, Location: WKO, Haus der Bauwirtschaft, Schaumburgergasse 20, 1040 Vienna.

The role of HiTec in this workshop was threefold:

 (1) brushing–up all consortium partners with the latest trends and actual open innovation practices – all within the context
      of AAL and support activities for local SME.
(2) relate all new information to the consortium’s dedication to bringing open innovation into daily work routines.
(3) support project partners from different ‘project cultures’ to unveil so far unarticulated expectations into the INNOVAL’s
      results and activities.

Testfeld Telematik: The deployment project “Testfeld Telematik” is the missing link for the national-wide roll-out of co-operative IV2 Services in Austria. This large scale field test including 3000 test drivers in the Viennese region is realized by 13 partners – including all Austrian technology leaders in the field of cooperative services – in cooperation with the project leader ASFiNAG. For a duration of one year test drivers can experience cooperative services in the test area, such as:

• Display of important traffic signs in the vehicle
• Warning of dangerous situations, congestions, road work
• Weather warnings, etc..

The project (budget € 4.5 Mio) is co-funded by the Austrian Klima und Energiefond KLiEn (Call December 2010, 2. Call Attraktivierung des ÖPNV – Technische Grundlagen) (project duration: March 2011-May 2013).

 

Hitec contributes to:

1) developing an intelligent methodological approach to assess the impact of co-operative IV2 services. Especially for assessing user-focused information, such as user acceptance or usability of services.

2) supporting in the economic and scientific exploitation of results on a national and international level, through exchange with the US DOT and field tests in Asia, as well as through presenting the leading role of Austria in the field of large scale field tests.

 

Projects 2011

2DECIDE (Toolkit for sustainable decision-making in ITS deployment) is a project funded under the European Union’s 7th Framework Programme for Research and Development. Its objective is to develop an “ITS Toolkit” to assist transport authorities in the deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), to help them solve traffic and transport problems and address policy objectives and issues. The aim is to help authorities to best exploit ITS to address problems such as congestion, accidents or environmental pollution, as well as improve user services, promote intermodality and access to information, enhance safety and security aspects, etc. This toolkit will suggest different solutions, depending on the problem or situation encountered by the user. Solutions include the deployment of systems integrating telematics with transport engineering in order to plan, design, operate, maintain and manage transport systems in the road and public transport sectors.  
Hitec’s contribution to the project has been the methodological support related to the identification of user requirements for the ITS toolkit, the identification of user acceptance and the financial assessment of ITS, that builds the content of the database and the development of a business model for the 2Decide toolkit. 
   

Projects 2010

PLATON (Processing Light - Advanced Technologies for Optical Nanostructures) photonics collaborative project started in March 2010 the second phase of its seven years total duration. The Austria-wide collaborative project now links 15 partners who cooperate intensively. Main objective of the initial phase has

  • firstly been to prepare for and exploit synergies

  • secondly to foster excellence and

  • thirdly to combine existing Austrian scientific as well as industrial expertise in the area of photonics and nano-technologies in order to increase visibility of Austrian activities in these fields.  

2DECIDE (Toolkit for sustainable decision-making in ITS deployment) is a project funded under the European Union’s 7th Framework Programme for Research and Development. Its objective is to develop an “ITS Toolkit” to assist transport authorities in the deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), to help them solve traffic and transport problems and address policy objectives and issues. The aim is to help authorities to best exploit ITS to address problems such as congestion, accidents or environmental pollution, as well as improve user services, promote intermodality and access to information, enhance safety and security aspects, etc. This toolkit will suggest different solutions, depending on the problem or situation encountered by the user. Solutions include the deployment of systems integrating telematics with transport engineering in order to plan, design, operate, maintain and manage transport systems in the road and public transport sectors.  
Hitec’s contribution to the project has been the methodological support related to the identification of user requirements for the ITS toolkit, the identification of user acceptance and the financial assessment of ITS, that builds the content of the database and the development of a business model for the 2Decide toolkit. 
   

Projects 2009

2DECIDE (Toolkit for sustainable decision-making in ITS deployment) is a project funded under the European Union’s 7th Framework Programme for Research and Development. Its objective is to develop an “ITS Toolkit” to assist transport authorities in the deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), to help them solve traffic and transport problems and address policy objectives and issues. The aim is to help authorities to best exploit ITS to address problems such as congestion, accidents or environmental pollution, as well as improve user services, promote intermodality and access to information, enhance safety and security aspects, etc. This toolkit will suggest different solutions, depending on the problem or situation encountered by the user. Solutions include the deployment of systems integrating telematics with transport engineering in order to plan, design, operate, maintain and manage transport systems in the road and public transport sectors.  
Hitec’s contribution to the project has been the methodological support related to the identification of user requirements for the ITS toolkit, the identification of user acceptance and the financial assessment of ITS, that builds the content of the database and the development of a business model for the 2Decide toolkit. 
 

AAS (Integrated Airport Apron Safety Fleet Management) targets the enhancement of efficiency and safety on the apron. A decision support tool for real time assignment of staff, tasks and equipment is being developed. At the same time the technology used will enhance safety by geo-fencing of restricted areas and by the implementation of access control to ground service vehicles. Further, it provides open interfaces towards existing airport operations systems, including ASMGCS (FP7, 05/08).
As a work package leader, HiTec was responsible for the initial user requirement analysis and for establishing the validation strategy. These tasks lay the foundation for system architecture and, respectively, project validation. The HiTec team supported the co-ordinator in dissemination activities at conferences and user meetings, and edited and designed the first AAS newsletter.  

PLATON (Processing Light - Advanced Technologies for Optical Nanostructures) photonics collaborative project started in March 2007 with six sub-projects and is designed to run for seven years. The Austria-wide collaborative project now links 15 partners who cooperate intensively. Main objective of the initial phase has

  • firstly been to prepare for and exploit synergies

  • secondly to foster excellence and

  • thirdly to combine existing Austrian scientific as well as industrial expertise in the area of photonics and nano-technologies in order to increase visibility of Austrian activities in these fields.

Results out of PLATON in terms of manufacturing and material science contribute to securing Austria as a strong player in manufacturing in a globalised supply chain.
The team of Hitec Marketing has supported the project coordinator and all participating industrial partners in terms of early and concurrent planning for exploitation and take-up as well as communication (internal and external), reporting and dissemination events. Besides these classical Hitec contributions the entire team has been determined to successfully highlight the role of Austria ’s photonics avant-garde within the international scientific landscape and to merge PLATON's sub-projects to an Austrian photonics-roadmap.

Economic analysis in relation to the establishment and operation of a laboratory and testing area for location, navigation and communication issues in the fields of traffic and logistics. As part of the regional initiative “Angewandte Verkehrsforschung / Galileo-Transport Sachsen-Anhalt“ a laboratory and testing area for location, navigation and communication in the fields of traffic and logistics (Galileo-Testfeld Sachsen-Anhalt) has been set up (in conjunction with the Ministry for Regional Development and Transport, the Cultural Ministry, the Ministry for Economics and Labour and the Otto-von-Guericke University of Magdeburg).  

Hitec addressed the following issues in its study:  

  • What markets would be suitable for the planned laboratory and testing area?

  • What commercial potential would exist to avail of such a facility in Sachsen-Anhalt, central Germany and further beyond?

  • What potential for spin offs might there be from universities and research institutes in central Germany ?

  • What benefit would there be for Sachsen-Anhalt? What job creation potential could there be?

  • How might the laboratory and testing area become viable in the medium and long-term?

The study was conducted for the Ministry of Regional Development and Transport in conjunction with MMC Mietsch Mobility Consult.

Projects 2008

Lack of engineers and choice of degree. This study illustrates possible motives and the context of the decision whether to make an education in engineering (Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering) or another degree. It is an explorative study with the research focus on the east part of Austria . The study result is based on 54 interviews of a convenience sample. The customers of the study are the trade associations Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering. The field research was embedded in a marketing course of the Vienna University of Economics. (Download)

Projects 2007

Potentials of Photonics in Austria: In co-operation with the NanoTecCenter Weiz Forschungsgesellschaft mbH, HiTec is performing a study analysing the potentials of Photonics in Austria
As subarea of applied optics, photonics deals with optical technologies, which today are already applied in different segments of the economy (CDs, DVDs, Plasmabildschirme, LEDs, Drucker, …) and which internationally receive increasing prominence with respective economic implementation potential. Based on this basic assessment, photonics has also been accepted as especially eligible from the European Union. Further, the topic photonics is of special relevance:

  • For the positioning of Austria against the European technology platform Photonics21, which was founded in December 2005 in Brussels . Its objective is amongst others to better fine-tune European research programs and – strategies.

  • For the integration of Austria in the international ERA-SPOT program (Strengthening Photonics and Optical Technologies for Europe ); as well as

  • For the development of a strong strategy 2009+ of the Austrian Nanoinitiative, where Photonics can also be an integral element. This is especially true, because internationally the cross-section between Information Technology and Nano Technology is monitored very closely due to its widely accepted potentials.

As a basis for the further strategic positioning in the above mentioned areas, the Austrian situation is analysed in-depth in the frame of a study of the Austrian potential. It is shown, which research groups and organisations work in this area in Austria . The as-is analysis of the Austrian activities shall be performed in regard to the in the European Technology Platform Photonics21 defined Working Groups (Information & Communication; Industrial Manufacturing & Quality; Life Science & Health; Lighting and Displays; Security, Metrology, Sensors; Optical Components & Systems; Research, Education and Training). Further, overlapping areas to other initiatives, such as ERA-SPOT (Strengthening Photonics and Optical Technologies for Europe ) and ENIAC (European Nanoelectronics Initiative Advisory Council) are identified.  

SANOWA – satellite-based emergency call system for lumbermen: This economic study is part of both the Austrian Space program and the project SANOWA.The project focuses on the development of an emergency call system for lumbermen. HiTec’s contribution includes:  

  • Market analysis: The market analysis focuses on two areas. First of all, the structure of forestry in Austria and some neighbouring countries are assessed and the market potential of emergency call systems is evaluated. Subsequently, an analysis of the competition illustrates the current market situation. Topics such as which emergency call systems are available at the moment, what are their advantages and disadvantages, who are the users and what costs are related to such systems are evaluated.

  • Evaluation of user needs: An assessment of user needs for emergency call systems concerning general and special system requirements is carried out. 

  • Analysis and documentation of the demonstration results from the perspective of the end user.

Study of the motives that drive or hinder the foundation of Nano-companies in Austria: In the frame of the Austrian Nano Initiative, the program responsibility of the Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT) and the program management of the Austrian Forschungsförderungsgesellschaft mbH (FFG) innovative research and development, training and advanced training, improved networking and trust-building measures as well as accompanying research topics in the area of Nanosciences and Nanotechnolgies are supported.
As a basis for the further strategic alignment for the program, the Austrian start-up community in the area of Nanotechnologies is analysed in depth. A study of motives shows the hindering and driving factors in the Austrian environment that have an influence on company foundations in this area. HiTec performs problem-centred interviews with selected founders in the Nanotechnology area to investigate their motives. In-depth case studies of international best-practice examples such as for example the CSEM in Switzerland show possible ways and potentials for the Austrian responsible persons.
The result is an in-depth analysis of the current situation, which will serve as a basis for possible actions for the Austrian Nanoinitiative.
 

MENTORE (implementation of GNSS tracking & tracing technologies for EU regulated domains) is a two-year project co-financed by the European GNSS Supervisory Authority (GSA) which began on 9 July 2007. The key objective of MENTORE is to demonstrate the added value of EGNOS and GALILEO for of tracking and tracing applications, with a long term view to:

  • supporting the application of National and European regulations already in place,
  • accelerating the process of set-up of regulations presently under development in support of EU policies,
  • triggering the development of a new European regulatory framework that integrates national trends and strategies.

Capitalising on the results of previous European initiatives and using existing tracking technologies MENTORE will help achieve a shared understanding of the regulatory and technological enablers supporting the widespread usage of GNSS as a tool to monitor and control the position of objects for safety, efficiency and traceability purposes. (GSA, since 07/07).

HiTec's contribution in MENTORE is broad. HiTec is responsible for setting-up and managing an interdisciplinary application & regulation observatory group of experts from inside and outside of the project team. Based on this input HiTec monitors the innovation environment including user requirements dynamics, changing market opportunities and user segments, regulation processes and project initiatives. Furthermore HiTec is responsible for performing a preliminary market analysis and cost benefit study for all five relevant project pilot candidate fields. After this HiTec conducts a detailed market research for one of the project pilots, namely tracking and tracing for livestock management.

„Exploitation prospects and barriers for adoption for Smart Eye in the telematic market“: The ARCS group smart systems developed a Smart Eye, which collects dynamic objects with a new optical sensor. The result is an abstract computer representation and no figure. The data analysis will be done locally in an embedded system with a digital signal processor. Both the sensor and the signal processing are integrated in this chip. Thus Smart Eye has the potential for a compact and cost efficient product. 
Focus of the study of Hitec Marketing is a qualitative evaluation of potential use cases in the telematic market and also a description of the market from the perspective of a supplier and buyer of Smart Eye. Furthermore Hitec identified potential barriers for adoption as well as urgent business development activities from the perspective of the Hitec study team. Within the study interviews with experts and relevant users were made, documented and analysed. HiTec’s know-how and network in this area supported the fast and serious assessment of the market.

AWIS – Alpines Wegeinformationssystem (alpine hiking network information system): This study for the Austrian Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Arbeit (BMWA) deals with the Austrian network of hiking trails and their digital acquisition. Special focus is the realisation of an information system, enabling standardised national wide data acquisition. This guarantees on the one hand the comfort and the safety of hikers and on the other hand the future maintenance of the Austrian network of hiking trails. HiTec analyses the Austrian and German market for information systems dealing with networks of hiking trails and future market scenarios. Further options for future activities of the BMWA are developed. 

„Imagination – Strategy development, positioning and business development“: Imagination offers virtual reality services in the business segments culture, science, marketing and sales and industrial planning since 1998. Hitec developed together with Imagination the actual situation of Imagination in the face of marketing and organisational strategy. Based on this analysis the strengths, weaknesses, chances and risks are outlined. 
The methodology contained an intensive analysis of the products and segments of Imagination and a subsequent workshop with the CEO of Imagination and 3 members of Hitec.

Designtool for „young elderlys“: In the scope of a Departure project, together with Danklhampel Design, an ethnography-based design-tool is developed. This design-tool is a modular, adjustable tool that supports user involvement in the design process. The techniques and combination of methods proposed shall support the visualisation of products under development, and foster the transfer of imagination, perception and knowledge between users and designers. 
Based on the question “Which form of input is especially helpful for the designer?”, HiTec develops in close co-operation with Danklhampel a first prototype for a design-tool. These tools are subsequently tested and adapted respectively with representatives of the target group “young elderlys”. Using a specific research topic the developed variety of the design-tool is shown in practice.

Projects 2006

COOPERS (CO-OPerative SystEms for Intelligent Road Safety) considers the two main parts of the road transport system - the vehicle and the infrastructure - as co-operating parts of the system. It focuses on the lack of so far neglected developments in the field of innovative telematics applications for road infrastructures with the long-term goal to achieve "co-operative traffic management" between vehicle and infrastructure. COOPERS will provide vehicles and drivers with real-time individual/local situation-based, safety-related traffic status and infrastructure status information distributed via dedicated Infrastructure to Vehicle Communication (I2V). The approach extends the concepts of vehicle-autonomous systems and vehicle-to-vehicle communication (V2V) with tactical and strategic traffic information to be provided by the infrastructure operator in real time (EU, DG INFSO, since 02/06).
HiTec's contribution in COOPERS is broad. As Sub-workpackage Leader, HiTec is responsible for the definition of user groups, the gathering and analysis of user needs and requirements, the analysis of the relevant market, including the assessment of market sizes and the identification of early candidates for adoption, and the identification and description of the value chain and actors involved. Later in the project, HiTec manages the business development and roll-out strategy of the project. Further HiTec contributes to various tasks, such as the definition of a methodology for socio-economic analysis, assessing the market impact of services, documentation of and recommendations on user aspects, development of an external communication strategy, reporting on panel results and joint achievements, definition of the HMI guidelines for operators, recommendation and guidelines for planning and validating safety systems, assessment of user acceptance, and the pooling of data of services and demo sites.

eMOTION (Europe-wide multi-Modal On-trip Traffic InformatiON): the projects aims at analysing the organisational, legal, economic and technical framework of a Europe-wide multimodal traffic information service (eMOTION) that offers real-time information to road and public transport users, dynamic (and multimodal) routing services, additional travel-related services such as tourist information or hotel reservation via on-trip-devices like PDA/Smart Phones or in-car-systems (EU, DG TREN, since 05/06).
HiTec’s task within this project consists in reviewing the current practice in European multi-modal real time traffic information services, analysing the roles and requirements (organisational, operational, technical, etc.) of the main actors within service chains;· setting up a reference framework to address barriers, facilitate content integration and prepare the operation of the service chain from a policy requirements point of view; establishing and quantifying financial business cases in inter-modal settings investigating the elements of a typical value chain; supporting the project management.

REACT is a project (STREP) co-fundet under the 6th Framework Program (IST-2005-033697). The project consortium including three emergency service is developing a system that can be used for clustering and prioritisation of emergency calls as well as interoperability between different PSAP (Public Safety Answering Point). This is realised by using semantic technologies, automatic speech recognition and secure XML data exchange (EC, IST, since 09/06). 
HiTec is responsible for the analysis of the user requirements and supports other partners in tasks such as e.g. dissemination.

Projects 2005

GIROADS (GNSS Introduction in the ROAD Sector) will aggregate the road community’s proposals to facilitate the technical and commercial introduction of Europe’s satellite navigation programme to the road transport sector. The underlying philosophy behind the project is that a number of key applications have the potential to become enablers of transport policy as a whole, while giving rise to commercially viable service provision schemes of interest to a wide range of stakeholders. These applications will be individually analysed to understand user requirements, assess the existing regulatory framework and build a realistic market study that can serve as a reference to the sector (GJU, since 09/05).
HiTec’s task within this project consists in analysing the existing market for such applications, e.g. road tolling, pay-per-use insurance, e-call, transport (including livestock), and traffic information, and to identify future market trends in this domain. Against the background of this information, HiTec will support the analysis of potential business models for these applications.

GIGA (Galileo Integrated Georeference Applications): High-precision (+/-2 cm, 3D level) measurement of pipeline networks with DGPS and its achieveable improvements with Galileo. The main aim of the project is the evaluation and further development of application areabrs as well as the identification of new promising application segments. In the first phase of the project the focus of the analysis is on five main areas: 1) Routine surveying of supply lines 2) First-time measurement of existing supply network 3) Network expansions and modifications 4) High-accuracy maintenance tasks and 5) Time Synchronisation (GJU, since 09/05).
HiTec’s task within this project consists in analysing the existing market for such applications in the energy domain. Furthermore, the user requirements, drivers and barriers to adoption, willingness to pay and future market trends will be identified. In this first phase HiTec’s task is also to identify lead user candidates and validate study results with them. In the last phase of GIGA, HiTec is also responsible for Economic Results Assessment. This includes the analysis of economic impacts with emphasis on GIGA’s applications and GNSS applications within the special User Community “Energy”, awareness building and business development by means of bilateral interviews, workshops and interactions with opinion leaders and leading experts, assessment of the technology acceptance for GIGA and GNSS applications and last but not least assessment of the societal impacts.

M-Trade: The project aims at promoting the introduction of GNSS-based positioning technologies (EGNOS and future GALILEO) in the field of multimodal freight transport. A real life pilot will be developed in order to validate and verify the impacts and differentiators of EGNOS and GALILEO use for container remote monitoring and asset management. The demonstrative system will be set-up along a typical freight chain, combining maritime-road-rail-river stretches (GJU, since 09/05).
HiTec’s task within the project consists in performing a market and cost/benefit analysis for the user community (road, rail, water transport), providing for an efficient user integration during the demonstration campaign, setting up recommendations and guidelines for a successful market introduction of M-Trade as well as defining the value added chain and innovative business models.

CHARPAN (CHARged Particle Nanotech): focuses on the research and development of a new production technology for nanotechnology devices. In particular, CHARPAN will enable low cost engineering of complex 3D surface structures with nanometre precision. No such accurate fabrication technology exists to date. This scientific breakthrough will be achieved by the development of equipment for projection focussed charged particle multi beam patterning. This will generate a massively parallel beam which can be manipulated for dynamic pattern generation. With this innovative technology different ion sources including noble gasses can be used, and the 200fold reduction optics permit direct structuring power at high throughput. A prototype equipment will be developed and tested, improved and validated by large industrial users, which are partners in the project (EC, since 04/2005).
Identification and analysis of potential fields of application and respective user requirements, of adoption barriers and Unique Selling Proposition; selection and design of appropriate methods for a market analysis including market segmentation and analysis of the market potential, support of networking-activities and establishment of an exploitation plan.

go.hiking: national research project in line with the program ARTIST that aims at developing an interactive, satellite navigation based Web-GIS-platform as supporting tool for the route monitoring of alpine associations, the co-ordination of mountain rescue services and individual route planning (since 09/05).
HiTec's contribution may be summarised as follows: analysis of the socio-economic context; elicitation of user requirements and acceptance indicators; development of a closed motivative chain for all participants; support of potential co-operations.

GUSTAV: national research project in line with the program ARTIST aiming at developing a prototype of a system platform serving as information hub in case of disasters to support disaster management as well as event documentation (since 05/2005).
Analysis of the innovation context such as organisational, legal and competitive conditions; identification of user requirements, acceptance indicators and adoption barriers for both application scenarios; evaluation of project results from an economic perspective.

EASE: (Enhancing Agriculture by Satellite navigation systEms): national research project in line with the program ARTIST aiming at developing and testing a satellite-based surveying and mapping system for funding purposes and optimising asset and acreage management in agriculture (since 05/2005).
Description of the current situation and of related problems in terms of the whole production chain; analysis of the competitive environment including strategic development trends; identification and analysis of user requirements; cost / benefit analysis; identification of adoption barriers; establishment of possible implementation and exploitation strategies.

Projects 2004

LIAISON (LocatIon bAsed servIceS for the enhancement of wOrking enviroNment): The project (IP 6th Framework program) aims to develop location-based-services for mobile professionals. In this context, different applications (police, fire brigade, garbage collection, utilities / power authorities, taxi fleets) are targeted. An integrated solution is developed taking the whole value chain into account. To this end, existing navigation technologies (i.e. GPS) are applied and connected by advanced interfaces with different communication technologies (GPRS, UMTS, W-LAN, TETRA). This enables the provision of new, reliable value-added services that are based on continuous positioning and location-based transfer of information (EC 09/2004-11/2005).
Identification and analysis of problem setting and potential barriers from an organisational point of view; efficient user involvement by analysis of user behaviour, needs and attitudes; formulation and analysis of appropriate method for market analysis; analysis of current and future market environment; analysis of the market potential and market segmentation, formulation of business models and exploitation plans

SCORE (Service of Coordinated Operational Search & Rescue using EGNOS): GJU (EC & ESA) project aiming to develop an end-to-end location based application for 112 Emergency Assistance and to launch a first prototype service. The basic concept consists in automatically forwarding information about the actual, accurate position (GPS, EGNOS) of an emergency caller (using a mobile phone) to the emergency call centre. The technological solution will be tested in field trials with special focus on improving the intervention management of fire brigades during forest fires by reducing the time of arrival at persons in distress (GJU since 02/04).
Identification and analysis of problem setting and potential barriers from an organisational point of view; efficient user involvement by analysis of user behaviour, needs and attitudes; formulation of Use Cases; analysis of market potential as well as possible export opportunities taking EGNOS and Galileo into consideration; evaluation and quantification of the value added as well as formulation of a cost / benefit analysis and dissemination strategy; execution of dissemination in cooperation with project partners.

ISMAEL (Intelligent Surveillance and Management Functions for Airfield Applications Based on Low Cost Magnetic Field Detectors): EU research project aiming at the development of an innovative detector based on recent advances in magnetic sensors providing for reliable surface movement surveillance at airports. ISMAEL will improve existing surface movement guidance and control systems (ASMGCS) at large airports as well as enable the installation of appropriate ASMGCS at small and medium airports in Europe. Thus, ISMAEL will be a major contribution to overcome existing operational limits of small and medium airports and strengthen their competitiveness by improving safety standards and capacity. Large airports will also benefit from ISMAEL, by gaining flexibility for the augmentation of existing A-SMGCS to raise their capacity. (EC, since 02/2004)
Identification and analysis of user requirements; economic and marketing support of the research team; socio-economic evaluation of the developed combined navigation receiver; compilation of an implementation plan and related next steps.

PosiTec: market analysis for PosiTec (co-financing: RIZ, 12/2004-06/2005).
Analysis of the market and establishment of an exploitation strategy for the positioning solution of PosiTec including an assessment of the success prospects; with focus on ultra- sensitive A-GPS; identification of promising fields of application; analysis of willingness-to- pay for an application domain.

OECD Futures Project: project named 'Futures Project – Commercialisation of Space' carried out by the OECD aiming at providing a survey of the opportunities and challenges in the space sector for the next 20-30 years (BM:VIT, 05/2004 - 12/2004).
Support in elaborating an Austrian position that will serve as input to the discussion of the preliminary insights and results of the OECD; presentation of learning experiences from the Austrian participation and identification of exploitation potentials for the OECD results.

Projects 2003

EMMFOR (Einsatz Moderner Messmethoden in der FORstinventur / Deployment of modern measurement methods in forest inventory): national research project in line with the program ARTIST aiming at developing an innovative satellite-based application supporting forest inventory, proving its technical and economic feasibility and in the following developing a sustainable service (BM:VIT/Galileo Contact Point, 09/2003 - 09/2004).
Identification and analysis of the problem setting and of potential barriers from an organisational point of view; analysis of user behaviour, expectations and attitudes for securing efficient user-integration; determination of the socio- economic potential; description and examination of potential supplier / demander constellations; estimation of potential value; securing the connectivity and visibility of project activities.

FLEET (Fleet Logistics service Enhancement with Egnos & galileo satellite Technology): national research project in line with the program ARTIST aiming at generating valid traffic information via Floating Car Data (FCD). In order to demonstrate the functionality of FCD in combination with satellite navigation an "initial fleet" on a proving ground is involved. (BM:VIT/Galileo Contact Point, 02/2003 - 07/2004).
A supporting accompaniment of the research consortium in order to enhance social and economic effectiveness; extensive description of the innovation project; analysis of the market system for revealing the current situation of the market, including competition and forthcoming trends; intelligent user- involvement during the whole development phase; analyses of technology acceptance and adoptions barriers, creation of a valid basis for continuative development and realisation activities.

HOLMES
(Forest Management optimised by deploying satellite navigation): national research project in line with the ARTIST program aiming at developing, testing and disseminating a self-contained logistics system by means of satellite navigation in order to optimise the dispositive and administrative logging logistics (BM:VIT/Galileo Contact Point, 09/2003 - 12/2004).
Identification and analysis of the problem setting and of potential barriers from an organisational point of view; provision of efficient user integration by analysing user behaviour, expectations and attitudes; determination of the socio-economic potential, description and examination of potential supplier / demander constellations; determination of the utility potential; securing the connectivity and visibility of project activities.

MEDNAV (Management of Emergency Devices based on NAVigation technologies): national research project in line with the program ARTIST aiming at optimising the rescue chain in the context of abrupt cardiac arrest by satellite navigation and other localisation technologies, such that the time to reanimation via heart defibrillator can be minimised. Technically speaking the project mainly deals with the combination of GPS/Galileo Services and WLAN solutions for localisation inside buildings (BM:VIT/Galileo Contact Point, 06/2003 - 12/2004).
Innovation context – legal, organisational, competitive and individual ancillary conditions; user requirements and user acceptance with respect to different usage scenarios within the scope of demonstrator operation; project assessment from an economic and innovation-political point of view; recommendations for the further exploitation of project results.

National Industrial Policies: study on effective practices of European industry and innovation policies with the focus on space and space-related industries as well as stimulation programmes – the Austrian situation (ESA subcontractor, 01/2002-05/2003).
Generation of information by means of expert interviews to evaluate the design and effectiveness of Austrian programmes and instruments in the space sector and to identify potentials for improvement. Result: Austria is considered as precursor amongst the small member states and two national stimulation programmes are documented as best-in-class examples in the European final report.

International Charter - Space and Major Disasters: investigating study as basis for an Austrian action plan to integrate the "International Charter: Space and Major Disasters" (BM:VIT, 07/2003 - 07/2004).
Analysis and presentation of user perspectives; description of the current situation and related problems; identification of information requirements; analysis of the generated added value and identification of adoption barriers.

CORPORATE MANAGEMENT TRAININGS of the HiTec Marketing Ausbildungs OEG: Philips Speech Processing, EADS (2003).

Execution of several-day management trainings in the field of business to business and business to government settings as well as software and high- technology marketing.

Projects 2002

IU-GMES-Practice (Increased User-Involvement in EO/GMES Practice): study on ways of increased involvement of potential users in the development of applications and markets within the scope of GMES research projects (ESA, 01-09/2002).
Changes in the research culture due to enforcement of active user involvement by means of innovative methods and approaches; as well as support of knowledge and technology transfer.

COMPOSE (Composition Of Mobile Pre-trip, On-trip Services): EU research project with the purpose to develop and market innovative information services for the pre-, on- and post-trip phase based on GPS, GPRS and S-UMTS (EC, 08/2002-11/2004).
Collection and analysis of user requirements by means of literature research and interviews with selected potential user organisations; analysis of the market environment as well as development of business models including quantified cost/benefit analyses; support in the dissemination and exploitation of generated findings, products and services.

ARTIST 2
(Austrian Radionavigation Technology and Integrated Satnav Testbed): accompanying measures for the start of the ARTIST programme (ASA, 04-06/2002).
Networking activities and promotion of community building by means of innovative presentation and event concepts.

Projects 2001

EGNOS TRAN (EGNOS Terrestrial regional Augmentation Network): development of safety-critical application based on EGNOS and terrestrial communication networks (transport management of dangerous and valuable goods, personal safety, civil aviation, object management on airports) (ESA, 08/2001-09/2003).
Preparation of an application analysis concerning usage situations, current and emerging problems as well as ways to solve them with the developed services. Development of tailored, monetary quantified business cases. Dissemination of the developed concept in European user communities by means of promotion material, co-design of public demonstrations, collection and analysis of user feedback and its translation for the development team.

FIT-IT 1 : identification and description of priority themes of information technology – forefield research for the national impulse programme for embedded systems (BM:VIT, 02-06/2001).
Support of the decision-making process on the selection of priority themes with respect to target-group fit, alignment with EU measures and promotion of young researchers by means of exhaustive literature research, qualitative expert interviews and innovative workshop concepts.

FIT-IT 2 : design of tender documents and preparation of the start of the programme FIT-IT Embedded Systems (BM:VIT, 07-12/2001).
Support in the development of programme rationalities and elaboration of recommendations on the co-operative design of funding schemes and programme conceptualisation with special focus on national and international best-practices with active participation of the client during the whole project duration.

Mifare : elicitation of customer satisfaction and concept acceptance for the services of the Mifare testcentre (Arsenal Research, 06-09/2001).
Representation of benefits, bottlenecks and acceptance of the offer from customer and non-customer point of view by means of comprehensive qualitative interviews.

ARTIST 1
(Austrian Radionavigation Technology and Integrated Satnav Testbed): workshops for the preparation of the programme and for the promotion of consortium building (ASA, 10/2000-07/2001).
Event series for the active involvement of all parties of the value-added chain to promote consortium building and pre-identification of potential priority themes for the call for proposals. Development of a comprehensive set of rules for project evaluation on a technical, economic and legal scale.

Projects 2000

GLORIA (Gnss and LOran-c for Road and rail Applications): EU research project aiming at an increased market penetration of positioning services based on a combination of GNSS and the terrestrial Loran-C positioning system (EC, 09/2000- 11/2002).
Identification and analysis of user requirements; economic and marketing support of the research team; socio-economic evaluation of the developed combined navigation receiver; compilation of an implementation plan and related next steps.


GEMINUS (Galileo European Multimodal Integrated Navigation User Service): study serving as input for revenue models in the context of the European satellite navigation system GALILEO (EC, 01-09/2000).
Analysis of market segmentation, market size and competitive environment; assessment of the price behaviour in the competitive environment of navigation and navigation-related communication services; identification and analysis of existing as well as potential future co-opetition relations, sensitivity analysis; quantification of potential user benefits.

Projects 1999

EU-VAST (Value Added Services for Transport): study on the estimation of the expected benefits of commercial GNSS applications in the transport sector with focus on road and multimodal transportation (EC, 01/1999 – 08/2000).
Identification of current and future commercial fields of application referring to satellite navigation services; assessment of the market potential and of pricing strategies and the willingness-to-pay of potential user groups; financing models including an exhaustive treatment of the Public Private Partnership model.


GNSS 2 : study on the development of strategic recommendations for Austria within the scope of the European satellite navigation system GALILEO (BM:VIT, 10/1999 - 03/2000).
Development of a Galileo data base and of a portfolio for the field of satellite navigation under especial consideration of value-added services; resulting recommendations for action referring to an intensification of Austrian activities, search for EU co-operation partners for certain niche topics, active participation in defined committees, enforcement of skills / know-how (= creation of prerequisites), etc.

GNSS 2 Cluster Austria : Feasibility Study GNSS-Cluster Austria (BM:VIT, 02- 06/1999).
Support in the creation of an Austrian cluster for satellite navigation; market needs and requirements for selected applications of satellite-based value-added navigation and positioning services; description of value-chains, description of risks and opinion-leader strategies.


COST (European CO-operation in the field of Scientific and Technical research): inventory of current COST actions with Austrian participation (BM:VIT, 07/1999- 10/2000).
Documentation and analysis of the research network COST from the viewpoint of Austrian researchers currently participating in COST, based on qualitative expert interviews. Main focus was put on the development of an operative information system (presentation of participating researchers and of current COST actions with Austrian participation), the identification of Austrian participants' motives and satisfaction as well as the analysis and structuring of these findings and the estimation of the relevance of COST for the Austrian research policy.


EU-SPIRIT (European System for Passenger services with Intermodal Reservation, Information and Ticketing): EU research project aiming at the development and test of a door-to-door travel information system for the European region (contract Number: TR 5002, 1999).
Development of an evaluation methodology based on the Extended Technology Acceptance Model (ETAM), the Task-Technology Fit concept and other empirically proven concepts; quality assurance during implementation of the methodology developed; analysis and interpretation of evaluation results; generation of reliable data on users' appraisal of the applications; identification and characterisation of prospective user segments.


DIS
(Distributed Innovation Systems): study on distributed innovation systems (ESA, 02-10/1999).
Review and assessment of existing distributed innovation systems, such as science parks, interdisciplinary research centres and spin-out companies, with respect to their qualification to generate, transfer and commercialise innovative technological developments and know-how of universities. Identification and compilation of trends, best-practices and experiences from existing programmes as well as elaboration of a technical and institutional framework for the promotion of stronger connections between academia and industry.
Result: Five of the 20 documented examples of European Effective Practice in the co-operation between academic research and space industry are Austrian cases.


Projects 1998


Empirical investigation of satellite navigation market in Austria for freight (1998).

Empirical investigation of remote earth observation satellite data market in Austria (1998).

The Role of High-Tech-Marketing to stimulate SME-Participation in the satellite data marketplace (ESA 1998).

EGNOS-Migration Study (HiTec Marketing, Teleconsult OEG and Trust Consult Unternehmensberatung GesmbH).

 

... riding the waves of innovation