On June 26, 2024, the Board of Trustees of the National Foundation for Research, Technology and Development approved funding of EUR 1 million for MINT regions from the Future Austria Fund. The initiative is carried out by the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF) and is managed by Austria Wirtschaftsservice (aws), which acts as the MINT Regions Service Hub.
In the first round of tenders, 14 Austrian MINT regions were awarded with around 380 actors – including 161 kindergartens and schools, 88 companies, 15 universities and over 100 other partners such as public institutions. The MINT regions quality label is awarded by the BMBWF, the aws and the cooperation partners Federation of Austrian Industries, MINTality Foundation and Austria’s education agency OeAD.
“In the current 14 Austrian MINT regions, we want to inspire as many young people as possible along the entire educational chain for mathematics, computer science, technology and natural sciences in order to best meet the global challenges with MINT knowledge and creativity as well as highly qualified young talent. The outstanding commitment of the MINT regions in numerous cooperation projects is to be further strengthened in the future by funding from the Future Austria Fund in the amount of EUR 1 million, with girls and women in particular being encouraged to develop their skills in MINT subjects,” said Federal Minister Martin Polaschek.
Support for innovative and experimental projects
The new funding of EUR 1 million is intended to be used to develop and implement cooperative projects in the certified MINT regions. School or extracurricular initiatives that have an innovative or experimental character can thus be tried out by the actors without risk. Equal opportunities are the main focus: the aim is to specifically increase interest in MINT subjects among people with different social and family backgrounds, skills and starting conditions. The funding call is scheduled to open at the beginning of 2025.
“With the new funding, the targeted approach to young people – especially girls – in the MINT regions will be further strengthened and intensified. As AWS, we are pleased that we can make an important contribution to making Austria a MINT location and a
“We are committed to developing a MINT specialist hub. Our contribution to this stimulating initiative also complements our mission as a federal development bank to increase innovation and thus international competitive attractiveness,” said aws management Edeltraud Stiftinger and Bernhard Sagmeister.
“The search for skilled workers in the MINT sector is and remains a major challenge for companies, even in economically difficult times. At the same time, MINT knowledge has become a basic requirement for understanding the complex world around us and being able to actively shape it – from climate change to artificial intelligence. MINT is thus becoming the super competence of our time. Through the support of the Future Austria Fund, MINT regions are given new opportunities to inspire children and young people with this super competence and thus open the door to the future for them,” says Georg Knill, President of the Federation of Austrian Industries (IV).
Jakob Calice, OeAD Managing Director, emphasises: “As Austria’s education agency, we very much welcome the new call for proposals worth 1 million euros. This gives MINT regions decisive scope for action to implement their projects and to anchor MINT education sustainably. This is an important contribution to increasing the visibility of and interest in MINT.”
“The aim of the MINTality Foundation is to inspire girls from an early age to become interested in technology through diverse and continuous MINT experiences, to encourage them and to connect them with each other. This is the only way for girls to find their way into exciting and high-income MINT training and careers in the long term. It is particularly important to us to work together with and support the MINT regions along this MINT learning path – through guidelines, good practice sharing and co-creation in order to jointly innovate (pilot) projects and scale regional projects across Austria. We can only welcome the fact that the MINT regions are now also receiving financial support,” says Therese Niss, founder and board member of the MINTality Foundation.
MINT-Region Obersteiermark
The new funding program is being presented on the sidelines of a visit by Federal Minister Polaschek to the MINT region of Upper Styria. Geographically, this region extends over the five political districts of Bruck-Mürzzuschlag, Leoben, Murtal, Murau and Liezen, and the coordination office is located at the Montanuniversität Leoben. “One prerequisite for competitiveness, a high quality of life and meeting the challenges of the future are well-educated people who stay in our region or settle here. Regional MINT funding is therefore of central importance both for the individual future prospects of young people and for the competitiveness and future viability of the region,” says Rector Peter Moser, explaining the long-standing commitment of the Alma Mater Leobiensis in this area.
“The MINT region wants to work for Upper Styria in Upper Styria and therefore sees its task in locally implementable areas of action,” emphasises Mayerhofer-Lillie, head of the coordination office.
Three milestones were defined to achieve the strategic goals: building a strong and sustainable network, supplementing, enriching and easing school STEM lessons through extracurricular initiatives, and creating successful educational transitions. These milestones are linked to a portfolio of concrete measures that are to be implemented in the coming years, including holding the successful STEM Congress again from February 25 to 27, 2025 at the Montanuniversität Leoben.
Current call for tenders for MINT regions quality label until 20 January 2025
In order to be certified as a MINT region with the quality label, certain quality criteria must be met. These requirements were developed in a catalogue of criteria together with all partners and a broadly composed steering committee. In order to be awarded, a network of different actors from the education and business sectors, a MINT mission statement or corresponding future projects as well as measures to increase MINT enthusiasm among girls and women are required.
The catalogue of criteria for the current submission as well as the MINT regions that have received awards so far can be found here www.mint-regionen.at – If you have any direct questions about the initiative, the MINT Regions Service Hub is available at any time at [email protected].
Applications for the second round of tenders are still possible until January 20, 2025.
About Austria Wirtschaftsservice GmbH (aws)
Austria Wirtschaftsservice GmbH (aws) is the federal government’s development bank. By granting low-interest loans, guarantees, grants and equity capital, it supports companies in the implementation of their innovative projects from the initial idea to market success. The aws also advises and supports with regard to the protection and exploitation of intellectual property. In addition, specific information, advice and services are offered for prospective, existing and expanding companies.
