in this context the reviews recommendations regarding additional funding should mainly be seen as recommending a shift towards more effective impactoriented funding and should not necessarily be interpreted as a call for a general funding increase however this does not preclude increases in certain areas nor increases in spending for rd and innovation over time in line with the austrian federal government s rd intensity target currently over the long term if considered beneficial opportunities also exist to develop a number of virtuous circles in the system for example improving universities production of excellent research and their commercialisation capacities could help to grow the currently weak venture capital sector because venture capital activity typically follows growth in investable projects and also help attract and retain human capital the potential and excellence of austria s research community has been impeded among other factors by a lack of competitive funding of basic research relative to many leading innovators eg the netherlands sweden and switzerland