accent Inkubator GmbH

accent Inkubator GmbH is the high-tech business incubator of the province of Lower Austria. For 20 years, accent has been empowering innovative startups with competence and passion. Its mission is to help pioneering ideas to enter the market by providing know-how, networking opportunities, and capital, fostering sustainable high-tech businesses.  

About accent Inkubator

accent collaborates closely with the academic sector and key partners such as the European Space Agency (ESA) and CERN. Accent is certified as an EUBIC (EU Business Incubator) by the European Business & Innovation Centre Network (EBN), and its activities are founded by aws – Austria Wirtschaftsservice, the federal state of Lower Austria, and the European Commission (e.g., Horizon Europe). 

accent operates the Experimental Practice and Innovation Center Lower Austria. Here, founders can prototype their ideas intended to drive sustainability, cleantech, climate change adaptation, agritech, industry decarbonization, green and digital twin transition within a dedicated, 5-hectare makerspace. Beyond providing premises, accent fosters a thriving community for innovators and continuously designs and pilots new incubation programs, driven by EU project collaborations. This hands-on environment enables entrepreneurs to advance their high-tech concepts from ideation to tangible solutions.

Why are we taking part?

“As a driving force in “Future Incubation,” we are shaping innovative strategies within 2C FIMH to provide founders with the ideal conditions for sustainable innovation. Our primary focus is the green transformation of manufacturing – a change we are proactively advancing with our partners. The cross-border region offers unique opportunities for this endeavour.” – Julia Uhlik, Head of epic^LA – Experimental Practice and Innovation Center Lower Austria

accent Inkubator @ Twin City Hub

In the Twin City Future Innovation Manufacturing Hub project accent leads the Work Package “Future Incubation” where the goal is to develop a collaborative toolkit for incubation and acceleration. The work package contributes to:

• Strengthening cross-border innovation by establishing a robust cross-border incubation ecosystem for manufacturing startups,
• Enhancing regional competitiveness by supporting high-tech manufacturing startups,
• Accelerating innovation by providing prototyping, funding, and mentoring opportunities,
• Ensuring long-term sustainability by implementing a scalable incubation framework.

accent’s primary focus within the project is to develop new programs that enable tailor-made support for start-ups from Austria and Slovakia. To achieve this, accent leverages its extensive experience in supporting future business champions of the Vienna region with competence and passion.

Tasks in the project

Goals and activities:

Following an in-depth analysis of the incubator and accelerator landscape and researching best practices and integration opportunities, together with its partners, accent will design and pilot:  

• new Sprint formats to support start-ups in prototyping and scaling across borders,
• new Roadshow formats to better connect businesses and startups at regional level,
• a call system to identify and support promising initiatives,
• and activate a cooperation model that lays the groundwork for a future cross-border incubator.