They are among Austria’s most highly endowed research awards, and their funding has been provided once again in 2021 by charitable foundations: researchers can now submit project proposals from the fields of cell research, anaesthesia, and the further development of the Internet as part of the new calls of the Herzfelder Foundation, the Weiss Award, and netidee SCIENCE.

Together with European research funding organisations the FWF has formed a network called Weave to create extensive opportunities for collaboration on basic research.

Research in a more open, transparent, and collective manner—the Austrian Science Fund FWF has revised its open access guidelines to be aligned with the principles of the international Plan S initiative starting in 2021. Research results will in future be openly available to everyone free of charge.

The first international FWF corona urgent funding project offers a safe and affordable alternative to current means of virus decontamination. The research focuses on the reuse of highly effective face masks and the decontamination of other sensitive objects.