FFG COMET — Competence Centres for Excellent Technologies
Runs Austria’s FFG COMET framework, coordinating university-industry consortia across long-term competence centres and collaborative excellence initiatives.
FFG COMET sits under the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) and serves as Austria's flagship framework for cooperative research between academia and industry. It spans COMET Projects, K1 Centres, and K2 Centres, and the record places COMET Projects as the entry route while K2 Centres sit at the apex of the programme. Funding is delivered as non-repayable grants. COMET Projects run for three to four years and can receive up to 45% public funding, while K2 Centres run for eight years with at least one scientific partner and five company partners and receive 40-55% public funding. The current ceiling in this record is EUR 2.7 million, foreign companies may participate, and the programme follows an annual cadence. Projects must address Austria's key technologies, with chips, electronic components and systems excluded from the current COMET Projects 2026 call. This route suits consortia that can coordinate academic and industrial partners around a long research agenda rather than a short commercial sprint. Federal provinces may co-finance on a 2:1 federal-to-provincial ratio, so applicants need to plan that second layer of support separately. The strongest proposals will show durable research depth, a clear partner structure, and a technology agenda that belongs in Austria's strategic research landscape.
Each grant below is a distinct funding opportunity with its own eligibility, scope, and deliverables.