act legal Austria’s managing partner Martin Wiedenbauer is chairman of Joanneum Research’s (JR) supervisory board. JR is the second largest non-university R&D-Company in Austria.
Besides the scientific excellence of JR’s scientists, the unique attribute of this R&D-Company is its shareholder structure. For 40 months now, JR is a joint venture of Styria and Carinthia, two Austrian federal states. This interregional cooperation’s focus is to bundle research activities and it is seen as a role model within the EU.
Last Friday in a joint press conference, the state governors of Styria (Hermann Schützenhöfer), Carinthia (Dr. Peter Kaiser) and Burgenland (Hans Niessl), the regional ministers of Styria (MMag. Barbara Eibinger-Midl) and Burgenland (MMag. Alexander Petschnig) and JR’s managing director (Univ.-Prof. DI Dr. Wolfgang Pribyl, MBA) have announced that Austrian’s federal state Burgenland has become a new shareholder with a 5% stake and, hence, is a new partner of this extraordinary research cooperation.
With this step, JR once more serves as perfect proof for Austrian south regions’ strong commitment to pool their forces and thereby shows that „political hurdles“ are to overcome in order to follow and implement a „better together“ strategy.
Martin Wiedenbauer has legally structured the entry of Carinthia in 2014 and has then become member of JR’s supervisory board, 2017 he was appointed as chairman. The contractual structure could now serve as basis for Burgenland’s entry. Martin said: “I am very happy and proud to be a part of this great interregional project“.
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