MedTech Location Upper Austria

MED UP: Medical technology on the rise

In the past decade, the Upper Austrian medtech sector has developed rapidly. The founding of the Medical Faculty of the Johannes Kepler University and the Kepler University Hospital in Linz contributed to the strengthening of the sector. At the same time as the university structures, the number of companies and organisations grew throughout the province, which - fuelled by their own and interdisciplinary research and development - allowed Upper Austria to mature into a European competence region in medical technology fields.

Without the corresponding political will, such a development would have been difficult or even impossible. Since 2002, the medical technology cluster of the Upper Austrian business agency "Business Upper Austria" has acted as a central interface to promote know-how transfer and the interaction of more than 230 domestic players: manufacturers (19%), service providers (27%), health care institutions (12%), research and development institutions (20%), suppliers (14%), and networks (8%). Within the framework of the economic and research programme "Innovative Upper Austria 2020", the initiative "MED UP" was launched and - supported by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) - a "Lead Project in Medical Technology" was nominated and endowed with funds: MEDUSA ("Medical EDUcation in Surgical Aneurysm clipping").

The focus on "medical simulation" for educational purposes is no coincidence. Upper Austria is already one of the top international addresses in this field. The competences required for the MEDUSA project are already available in the province and will be bundled, strengthened and utilised in a targeted manner through the lead project. Beyond the project, the local proximity of all 13 consortium partners leads us to expect sustainable cooperation for medtech innovations "made in Upper Austria".

In turn, the systematic use of innovative concepts such as hybrid simulators or virtual anatomy promises a further advance in research-oriented teaching and medical training at the Johannes Kepler University and Kepler University Hospital Linz.

In addition to its immediate goals, MEDUSA has the potential to sustainably increase the visibility of existing medtech competencies in Upper Austria and to generate a signal effect far beyond Upper Austria as a economic and business location.

Location Upper Austria

Dipl.-Betriebswirtin (FH) Frauke Wurmböck, MBA

Cluster-Manager, Medizintechnik-Cluster
Business Upper Austria - OÖ Wirtschaftsagentur GmbH

Hafenstraße 47-51
A-4020 Linz


Medical EDUcation in Surgical Aneurysm clipping

In close cooperation with students from the bachelor’s degree program in Media Technology and Design at the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, Campus Hagenberg, a MEDUSA project video was produced. We would like to thank them for the excellent cooperation and the great result.

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