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Proud of accent Inkubator Joining the Network as Certified EU|BIC

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A ‘tough tech business incubator’ and spin-off expert for academic R&D, defining business success for startups in the Lower Austrian region. Exemplary well.

 

CERN-BIC Screening Week February 2020 – Copyright Ursula Steiner: Austrian teams of students, accent team members and Dutch participants @CERN, Geneva; finding commercialization opportunities for selected CERN technologies

CERN-BIC Screening Week February 2020 – Copyright Ursula Steiner: Austrian teams of students, accent team members and Dutch participants @CERN, Geneva; finding commercialization opportunities for selected CERN technologies

 

Good for the Company

Accent Inkubator (accent) has long been working toward an accessible, tailored and demand-driven business incubation environment in the rural backyard of Vienna. They were the first in the academic R&D field to develop a unique incubation method shifting away from a structure uniform approach addressing spin-offs in the Viennese universities and their focus on the individual needs of a business idea coming out of the academic sector. Their coaching and workshops on spin-off relevant topics and accent’s focus on increasing teaching capacities with its Creative Pre-Incubator accelerator for universities of applied science guarantees a steady inflow into their main incubation programme for high-tech companies.

Supporting the full growth trajectory of their clients, Accent is also committed to internationalising its incubated startups whenever possible and was one of the pioneering incubator members of the pan-European CERN BIC Network. More recently, accent carries responsibility for space startups in the North-Eastern region in Austria, as the local incubation partner of the European Space Agency (ESA) BIC Network. Joining the EBN network and aiming for EU|BIC certification was a well-thought-through next step.

‘’Knowing several other certifications, we know that the EU|BIC certificate is the only one accepted by the European Commission and stands for high quality. The decision for all co-operations in the past was always focused on excellence and not on quantity’’, shares Michael Moll.

 

Giovanni Anelli, Head of CERN Knowledge Transfer Group and Michael Moll, CEO accent, Copyright Beatrice Weisgram: accent is Business Incubation Center of CERN Technologies

Giovanni Anelli, Head of CERN Knowledge Transfer Group and Michael Moll, CEO accent, Copyright Beatrice Weisgram: accent is Business Incubation Center of CERN Technologies

 

Good for Clients

accent Inkubator is devoted to learning from and sharing of best practices on incubation methods, technology transfer and spin-off activities. They align with organisations and partner networks focused on continuously improving their service offering. By cooperating with CERN and ESA they make high-tech know-how accessible to accent startups, both CERN and ESA knowledge cover a broad variety of technology fields such as sensors, cryo-tech, welding- and vacuum technologies data processing and storage, and many more. 

Their client startups can also use CERN Technology and ESA logos for their marketing, showing their cooperation with the biggest R&D Institution in Europe. Three to four accent projects are incubated in the ESA BIC programme, each year.

 

Good for You

Joining EBN and accessing the EU|BIC community was the next milestone for accent as a tough tech incubator. True to their nature, accent is always looking for best practices and qualified partners to exchange and develop know-how with the community of EU|BICs and the broader EBN network. More specifically:

–               They are keen to further developing incubation programs for social business startups, especially on a European level. The social business startups already incubated within accent’s incubator have developed far above expectations. Since the incubation program in Austria is very much focused on technology startups, They actively seek to learn from and exchange with knowledge available from other experts. For example, you can meet the team of accent in the Social Impact and Space SIGs (Special Interest Groups).

–               They also encourage others to share best practices within technology transfer and spin-off activities. accent’s experience showed that there is room for improvement when it comes to making it attractive for students and R&D actors to start a business out of a big scientific institution.

–               Lastly, it would also be interesting for the accent team of experts to see how similar regions like the lower Austria tackle the specific challenges and use the specific opportunities that come with operating in a region around a big city. ‘’Our goal in every network is to be an active partner and its always about participation. This is the reason why we see the EU|BIC community as a perfect match for accent.’’

 

Excellent for the Region

One advantage of being a regional incubator in a rural region is that many startup ideas surging from agriculture or environment proactively tend to a regional incubator instead of an urban incubator.

All accent startups are requested to present, besides their business and R&D goals, their impact goals based upon the social development goals (SDG) since last year. With the universities and within their business support programmes accent actively contributes to the goals of the Austrian Ministry of Innovation and Technology, the regional Government of Lower Austria and its focus on the three key tech fields Bio-Medicine, Tribology and Material Science, and Agri-tech and green biotech.

Being located in the ‘bacon belt’ area around Vienna surrounded with only a few very small cities is certainly a challenge and a chance. The regional government and accent decided to opt for the chance. Ever since they have been successfully developing methods to attract scientific institutions and high-tech startups and SME.

Technology and Research Centre Tulln, where one of the accent offices and coworking spaces is situated, Copyright Tschank

Technology and Research Centre Tulln, where one of the accent offices and coworking spaces is situated, Copyright Tschank

 

What is an EU|BIC

Being a certified European Business and Innovation Centre (EU|BIC for short) means responding to our mission to use business and innovation as a force for regional development, and ultimately wellbeing for the region. In other words, for EU|BICs it is all about delivering more to create thriving startups and SMEs and to take real steps to ensure that their services are most advantageous to their clients and best advantageous to their regions.

To rise to the challenge and increase our impact as the EU|BIC community, it requires an ongoing commitment to learning, having confidence in our approach, adapting to change and maintaining our mind-set and sheer passion for excellence. That is why we assess our core operating systems, benchmark our performance, and improve our services towards members.

Our growing community represents the most effective way of stimulating innovative businesses: by offering high-quality services and building entrepreneurial networks that deliver solutions for local industries and beyond.

Read our latest publication and learn more about how EU|BICs, like accent, create a positive impact on its community of clients and its regional economic environment. You can find the most recent 2020 EU|BIC Impact and Activity Study, and its summarised version, the Report online (www.ebn.eu/eubic-impact-study).

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