Green Frontrunner
Grants of up to €1 million for technology-leading companies in Austria developing climate-friendly products or bringing research into production.
Αυτή η ευκαιρία είναι προς το παρόν διαθέσιμη στα Αγγλικά.
Green Frontrunner supports companies that lead their market or an important niche through technology. It funds improvements to products already ready for market, or work that brings products to market readiness. The resulting products, processes or services must create environmental benefits for their users, such as lower emissions or resource use.
You can fund investment that puts your research into production, purchases and adapts technology, or develops new or substantially improved products, processes or services. Prototypes, pilot plants and demonstration facilities are included. Modernisation or expansion investment can qualify where it has substantial employment or regional economic effects; a simple increase in production capacity without a clear strategic purpose does not qualify.
The support is a grant that does not normally have to be repaid, up to €1 million per project. You may combine it with an aws erp-Kredit loan, but taking that loan is not a requirement for the grant. Breaking the funding conditions can require repayment.
The percentage depends on the applicable EU funding category and your company size. For ordinary investment by small and medium-sized companies, the ceilings are 20% and 10% of eligible costs respectively. Regional investment ceilings are 30% for small, 20% for medium-sized and 10% for large companies. Research and development ceilings are 50% for research work and 25% for development work, such as new or improved products and prototypes. The EU funding categories are called industrial research and experimental development; with an additional 20 percentage points for small or 10 for medium-sized companies.
For environmental protection and decarbonisation investment, the ceiling is 25%. For energy efficiency outside buildings, it is 50% for small, 40% for medium-sized and 30% for large companies; investment in designated EU assisted regions may add 15 or 5 percentage points, depending on the region. Renewable energy generation, qualifying heat pumps, renewable hydrogen and efficient cogeneration (producing electricity and heat together) using renewable energy have a 45% ceiling; other investment eligible under that category has a 30% ceiling. Small companies may add 20 percentage points and medium-sized companies 10. Resource efficiency and circular-economy investment has ceilings of 60%, 50% and 40% for small, medium-sized and large companies. For resource-efficiency and circular-economy investment, eligible costs are the additional investment costs compared with a less environmentally friendly alternative.
Eligible costs must be actual, direct and additional to ordinary operating expenses. Investment can cover tangible and intangible assets. For leased investment assets, only lease payments paid during the project count, up to the asset’s net market value. Research and development can cover project staff, equipment and building depreciation for the period of use, external studies or testing, materials and necessary additional overheads; a flat overhead allowance may be up to 20% of the specified cost categories, excluding external costs.
Eligibility
- At grant payment, your company must have an establishment or branch in Austria and generate the majority of its value added there. Sole traders, legal entities and partnerships outside the federal administration can apply, but Austrian civil-law partnerships (GesbR) and associations cannot.
- Eligible project costs must be at least €300,000. Your company must demonstrate above-average technology and innovation capability, for example through substantial research and development, patents or certifications, and have a business plan directed towards climate and environmental goals. The project must make a substantial contribution to these goals.
- A pure manufacturing operation whose strategic decisions are made outside Austria is excluded. Companies with little research activity or no potential for a technological leading role are also excluded.
- The overall project financing must be secured. The grant must enable additional work that would otherwise not happen, or would happen on a smaller scale, differently or elsewhere. Submit the application before starting project work; preliminary feasibility studies outside the application are permitted.
- Companies in insolvency proceedings, or meeting the legal conditions for creditor-initiated insolvency, are excluded. An outstanding European Commission recovery order for unlawful aid must first be complied with. EU rules generally exclude companies in financial difficulty, with exceptions including companies that were not in difficulty on 31 December 2019 but became so during 2020–2021.
- Costs incurred before application or the agreed project start, costs covered by another grant, provisions and reserves are excluded. Recoverable VAT is excluded; VAT you demonstrably and finally bear because you cannot deduct it can qualify. Individual invoices below €50 excluding VAT are excluded, but similar recurring payments to the same supplier within a year may be combined to exceed this amount. Used assets are excluded except active assets acquired when taking over an establishment. Vehicles are excluded except transport equipment used inside the business.
- Declare other public funding for the project. Combining public support for overlapping eligible costs must remain within the applicable EU aid ceilings. Costs already covered by another grant cannot be claimed again.
How to apply
- Κατάσταση
- Ανοιχτό συνεχώς
- Όροι του κύκλου αιτήσεων
- Apply before starting the project.[^c12]
- Funding decisions under the current programme document can be made until 31 December 2026.[^c18]
Apply online through the aws Fördermanager before starting the project. Include a business plan, project description and location, start and end dates, costs, schedule and financing plan, requested grant amount, company-size information and details of other project funding. Your Green Frontrunner strategy should explain how the project advances your climate and environmental goals and creates benefits for users.
aws checks the application and assesses its technology, innovation and environmental contribution. Its experts prepare a recommendation for the erp-Kreditkommission, and aws makes the funding decision. Accepting the funding offer and its conditions establishes the grant contract.
Unless the contract says otherwise, complete the project within two years from the date of the grant contract. aws may approve an extension of one year without additional funding if the funded purpose remains intact. Submit progress and final reports with evidence of project costs; aws reserves at least 10% of the grant until it accepts the final evidence.