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Innovation survey

Every two years the innovation survey (CIS) collects information on the innovation activities of enterprises. The survey is conducted within the entire EU by using harmonised standards and provides comparisons between member countries about the innovation activities of enterprises. In Austria, 6 500 enterprises are surveyed.

Innovations are new or improved goods, services or business processes which differ significantly from the firm‘s previous goods, services or business processes and that have been introduced onto the market or implemented by the firm.

The survey can be completed by a web form (eQuest, German) or by paper questionnaire (via postal mail, German and English). Currently the CIS 2024 is being conducted.

The survey is carried out on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economy, Energy and Tourism(BMWET).

The relevant EU legislation is:

The leaflet on data confidentiality informs you about the processing of personal data in innovation statistics. The results are published by Statistics Austria in compliance with the legal confidentiality rules.

Around 6 500 enterprises with 10 or more persons employed are surveyed. These enterprises carry out their main economic activities in one of the following industries (ÖNACE 2008): B, C, D, E, 46, H, J, K, 71-73.

Participation in the survey is legally not mandatory.

Further information from the European Union on the importance of the survey can be found here: 

Reference period for this survey are the years 2022 to 2024. Economic data is only collected for the reference year 2024. If your business year does not coincide with the calendar year 2024, please report for the previous business year that ended before 31 December 2024.

Please complete the questionnaire until: 14 November 2025

Explanatory notes on the content of individual questions can be found in the web questionnaire.

If you have any further questions do not hesitate to contact Statistics Austria (see Contact).

For data transmission to Statistics Austria, use the web questionnaire available at the following link:

Web questionnaire

Use the link to access the web questionnaire and enter the username („Anmeldename“) and password („Passwort“) that you will find on the letter sent to you by mail.

When you log in for the first time, it is mandatory to change the password and assign a password of your choice (incl. upper and lower-case letters) with at least 12 characters. This password is only known to you and cannot be decrypted by Statistics Austria. After confirming the new password, please select „eQuest-Web“ on the next page and then open the European Innovation Survey 2024 questionnaire („Europäische Innovationserhebung 2024“).

You also have the option under „E-Mail Verifikation" to store an email address so that you can quickly reset your password yourself if necessary. Enter an e-mail address of your choice and follow the instructions.

Time-out in the web questionnaire

Note that a time-out is set for the web questionnaire. If you do not take any actions for 30 minutes while filling out the form, your session will automatically be interrupted. Unsaved data will be lost. Therefore, save your entries in due time!

If you want to interrupt filling out the questionnaire and resume it at a later time, save your entries (button „Speichern“) and then click „Abbrechen“.

Print version of the web questionnaire

With the button „Druckversion erzeugen“ you can generate a PDF version of your questionnaire both before and after reporting the questionnaire to Statistics Austria and print it out or save it on your computer.

Paper questionnaire

Alternatively, you can also submit your data to Statistics Austria by means of a paper questionnaire, which is available to you as a download.

Please enter your enterprise name and ID (starting with „C“, followed by a four-digit number) in the address field of the questionnaire, so that we can assign the questionnaire to your enterprise. You can find your ID on page 1 of the letter sent to you by mail.

Please send the completed questionnaire either via postal mail to

STATISTIK AUSTRIA 
Direktion Bevölkerung
Bereich Forschung und Digitalisierung 
Guglgasse 13
1110 Wien

or by e-mail to innovation@statistik.gv.at

Business Service Portal (USP)

Your enterprise also has the option of submitting the data via the Business Service Portal (USP) if your enterprise company is registered there and you have been authorized for the eQuest-Web procedure by your enterprise's USP administrator. In this case, you do not need any survey-specific access data for the web questionnaire; access is granted via the authorisation rules applicable to the USP and is available under “My USP – Services – All Services – eQuest-Web“.

CIS team Phone: +43 1 711 28-8964
innovation@statistik.gv.at Available on weekdays from 9:00 – 15:00
Last updated on 2025-10-27.