Events, Projects
Published on June 12, 2026

Competence center on resilience in networked systems

written by Christian Bettstetter

Funding has been approved for an Austrian competence center on Autonomic Resilience in Dynamic Networked Systems (ARC), led and hosted by Lakeside Labs GmbH. With a four-year budget of € 22.8 million, collaborative and strategic research will be conducted to strengthen the resilience of energy systems, manufacturing facilities, and organizations.

Written by Christian Bettstetter. Photos by Thomas Hude.

We live in an era of global crises and geopolitical tensions that increasingly threaten stability and prosperity across Europe. A strategic priority to counteract this trend is to strengthen our resilience—the ability of systems to withstand shocks and recover from disruptions. Resilience is essential for protecting critical infrastructure, maintaining competitiveness, and ultimately preserving our freedom. Its growing importance is reflected in new laws and the awareness that it represents a key competitive advantage in an uncertain world.

Given these developments, resilience has become a topic that deserves a dedicated research center in Austria. To address this need, Lakeside Labs has assembled a strong international consortium that worked out a comprehensive research program, called Autonomic Resilience in Dynamic Networked Systems (ARC), in order to establish a Competence Center for Excellent Technologies through Austria’s funding scheme COMET, which fosters collaboration between research organizations and industry. Following the proposal submission in November 2025 and an oral hearing in May 2026, the COMET center has now been approved for funding.

ARC will develop innovative methods and technologies to strengthen the resilience of networked systems facing crises and external shocks. The center focuses on resilience functionality that enables systems to operate in a semi-autonomous manner while keeping humans at the center of decision-making. Research will address challenges in three key application domains: energy grids, industrial production, and organizations. The four-year program comprises 16 projects, ranging from collaborative research tackling concrete challenges faced by industrial partners to fundamental research exploring long-term scientific opportunities. Among the key research topics are resilience against concurrent and unforeseen shocks, as well as resilience in multilayer networked systems. ARC combines expertise from swarm intelligence, artificial intelligence, management science, and mathematical methods like stochastic processes and network theory. In addition, risk analysis methods will be applied to identify vulnerabilities in real-world technical systems and organizations.

Christian Bettstetter, Scientific Director of Lakeside Labs (middle) with Daniel Fellner, Head of Carinthia’s government (right) and Claudia Prüggler, Managing Director of Lakeside Labs (left).

The center is expected to start its operation in early 2027 with a four-year budget of € 22.8 million, including € 11.4 million in public funding and about € 10 million company contributions. The industrial consortium consists of 18 companies, mainly from the energy and industrial sectors. The scientific consortium is anchored in Klagenfurt, with partners in Vienna and Graz, and features a strong international dimension through players from Dresden, Zürich, and Freiburg, as well as ten associated partners.

At a press conference held by the state of Carinthia, Governor (Landeshauptmann) Daniel Fellner and the owners of Lakeside Labs GmbH celebrated the success together with the applicants. Ada Pellert, Rector of the University of Klagenfurt, emphasized the significance of the center for both the university and the region: “The approval of the COMET Competence Center ARC is a tremendous success for Carinthia as a research and innovation hub and a strong endorsement of the scientific excellence of the University of Klagenfurt and Lakeside Labs […]. This project demonstrates that researchers in Austria are actively addressing some of today’s most pressing challenges. Autonomous and resilient systems capable of withstanding shocks and crises are key technologies for Europe’s future.” Daniel Fellner stated: “Resilience will be crucial in determining how effectively we can deal with crises, natural events, or technological challenges in the future. The fact that Carinthia is taking a leading role in this area sends a strong signal.” BABEG director Markus Hornböck added: “Particularly encouraging is the strong commitment from industry […] [which] demonstrates the high level of confidence in Carinthia’s research and innovation capabilities.”

Press releases (in German)

Media coverage (in German)

. . .

The quotes of Pellert, Fellner, and Hornböck are taken from the university’s press release (June 11, 2026) and translated from German to English. Suggestions for language improvement and translations were generated using ChatGPT.