The FWF has added a new programme to its portfolio called #ConnectingMinds, which is designed to encourage researchers to include non-academic stakeholders. Funding is offered to teams that combine scientific and societal knowledge and thereby attempt to meet social, technological, ecological, and economic challenges.

By redesigning its career development programmes, the Austrian Science Fund FWF intends to initiate trailblazing changes to promote equal opportunities and innovation. This would provide a huge modernization thrust to the academic system as a whole, as Edith Gößnitzer notes in this interview. Gößnitzer, a chemist and expert on gender equality, is convinced that the prerequisites are already in place.

A group of researchers led by Brigitte Krenn teaches robots the art of speaking and understanding. In order to teach these skills to computers, the researchers simulate the first phases of language learning in children, as the computer scientist reports in the current scilog video.

scilog is a showcase for the world of basic research. The online magazine reports on FWF-funded individuals and projects and discusses issues concerning the future of scientific research.