ESBS-Austria welcomed around 50 participants on site at the historic location of Palais Palffy and some more participating via live stream.

An opening keynote given by Michael Rohrer of the Austrian Energy Agency, provided background information on requirements, demands and strategies, which are crucial for a successful energy transition. The keynote was followed by a panel discussion with industry representatives of AVL (Horst Pflügl), Fronius (Günther Ritzberger) and Infineon Technologies Austria (Josef Moser) under moderation of Markus Pistauer (CISC), on ESBS as key technologies to enable the energy transition.

Further highlights of the programme were the most recent information on the status of Chips-JU provided by EC representative Max Lemke, as well as latest news on KDT JU given by Bert de Colvenaer, whom we especially thank for his great work and contribution as Executive Director KDT!

The afternoon session started with the official awarding of the 3 best esbs-related Master's Thesis 2022 with focus "digital souvereignty". Mr. Stefan Rohringer, chairman ESBS-Austria,  presented the winners and personally handed over the awards to Mr. Michael Gramüller, 3rd best thesis, University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria - Campus Wels; Mr. Michael Töfferl, 2nd best, University of Technology Graz, and to Maike Sagerer, Montan Universität Leoben for the best thesis! Ms. Julia Zündel, supervisor of Ms. Sagerer, accepted the award on behalf of Ms. Sagerer, unfortunately not being able to personally attend the ceremony. ESBS-Austria rewarded each with a financial contribution of €2.000,-.
Congratulations!

Presentations and detailed information about the SRIA 2023 focus topics, learnings from the 1. KDT call, Sustainability & IPCEI (Important Project of Common European Interest) as well as some insights into the activities of other European countries such as Slovakia, Sweden and Italy rounded up the programme.

We look back to a successful event and a lot of personal networking!