Good practice Imported

Science Park Graz — Austria's leading publicly funded high-tech incubator with 700+ alumni companies

Austria · Graz · See the Austria profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 18% 81/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Graz's publicly funded high-tech incubator has supported 700+ startups since 2002, generating 35+ new companies per year with a ~90% survival rate, through an 18-month AplusB programme backed by TU Graz, ESA, and local financial institutions.

700+

Startups supported since inception

90 %

Reported active-company survival rate

Science Park Graz — Austria's leading publicly funded high-tech incubator with 700+ alumni companies

Details

Maturity: Established
Promoter: Science Park Graz GmbH
Period: 2002–present
Region (NUTS): AT22
Keywords: Public-Academic-Private Partnership

Context

Science Park Graz (SPG), founded in 2002, is Austria's AplusB-network high-tech incubator anchored to TU Graz, running an 18-month structured incubation programme with interest-free R&D loans.

Results

SPG has supported 700+ start-ups since inception, generating 35+ new companies per year, with a publicly reported ~90% active-company survival rate. The AplusB model has been deployed across six other Austrian university cities.

Implementation

Indicative cost: Medium (€50k–€500k)
Time to results: Medium (1–3 years)
Staffing & skills: incubation advisors/coaches, R&D loan administrators

Conditions for success

anchor university (TU Graz) for pipeline
co-financing from a regional bank for interest-free R&D loans
national AplusB programme funding

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes ERDF — European Regional Development Fund

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

Do you run this practice? Claim it — verified implementers get a public contact pathway and can propose corrections.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

C-NAPSE web research — accessed 2026-06-21
Science Park Graz GmbH — accessed 2026-06-21
Science Park Graz official — accessed 2026-06-21
AplusB incubation programme — accessed 2026-06-21
Portfolio of alumni startups — accessed 2026-06-21
BABEG investment profile — accessed 2026-06-21

Attachments

Source image

Quality score: 81/100

How is this calculated?

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported

Top 18% in this catalogue (819 scored practices)

Scores cluster high, so position within the catalogue is often more telling than the number alone.

Evaluation

Evaluated by C-NAPSE

Score profile — the dimensions behind the score — how it's computed

Evidence of impact / measured results3/3

700+ supported startups, ~90% survival rate, and 35+ new companies per year are explicitly stated on the official site and in publicly available programme documentation.

Transferability / demonstrated replication3/3

The model has been explicitly replicated across Austria's AplusB national network (6+ sites) and the ESA BIC model operates in 20+ European countries — both document successful transfer.

Scalability2/3

Consistent throughput of 35+ companies per year for 22+ years indicates steady-state efficiency; significant scaling would require additional national AplusB nodes rather than local expansion.

Sustainability / continuity3/3

22-year operation backed by Austrian national AplusB programme, TU Graz, ESA, and local banking co-financing provides strong multi-source financial sustainability.

Innovation2/3

18-month deep-tech incubation with ESA BIC integration and academic pipeline is a differentiated model; the approach is well-established but not highly novel at this stage.

Inclusiveness / equity1/3

Exclusively targets high-tech, academically linked founders; no documented outreach to underrepresented communities or non-technology sectors.

Multi-stakeholder collaboration3/3

Formal collaboration between TU Graz (academia), Austrian government (AplusB national programme), ESA (European space agency), and Steiermärkische Sparkasse (private banking) is documented.

Cite this

Evidoria. Science Park Graz — Austria's leading publicly funded high-tech incubator with 700+ alumni companies. Persistent ID: dfce914b-b804-42cc-b46c-3d046470bf0a.

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