Twenty Years of Successful Translational Research: A Case Study of Three COMET Centers

The term ‘translational research’ is traditionally applied to medicine referring to a transfer of scientific results into practice, namely from ‘bench to bedside’. Only in recent years there have been attempts to define Translational (research in) Computer Science (TCS), aside from applied or basic research and mere commercialisation. In practice, however, funding programs for academia-industry collaboration in several European countries – like the Austrian COMET Program and its predecessors which include opportunities for Computer Science institutions – already provided a unique framework for TCS for over two decades. Although the COMET Program was initially set up as a means of temporary funding, a majority of the partaking institutions have managed to stay in the program over several funding periods – turning it in a de facto long-term funding framework that provides a successful structure for academia-industry collaboration. How to (i) identify the key factors to the success of individual Competence Centers and (ii) maintain fruitful relationships with industry and other academic partners are the main aims of this paper.