Executive Board
Composed of the President, three Vice-Presidents of Research, and the Executive Vice-President, the Executive Board coordinates the organization’s activities. It is in charge of defining the FWF's strategic objectives as well as developing and advancing its funding programs. In addition, the Executive Board is responsible for negotiating with Austrian and European research policymakers, cooperating with universities and other research institutions in Austria and abroad, and representing the FWF at the national and international level. The members of the Executive Board also belong to the Assembly of Delegates and the Scientific Board. The Vice-Presidents of Research are each in charge of a specialist department at the FWF.
The President represents the FWF to the outside, chairs the Scientific Board and the Executive Board, and manages the FWF Office. The President may be represented in all of their responsibilities by any member of the Executive Board.
President
Christof Gattringer
Particle physicist Christof Gattringer was a professor at the University of Graz since 2005 and Vice-Rector for Research and Junior Researchers’ Promotion since 2019. He has conducted research, for example, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, and at the University of Washington in Seattle
Executive Vice-President
Ursula Jakubek
Ursula Jakubek has been the Executive Vice-President of the FWF Executive Board since June 2021. Prior to joining the FWF, she served as the Director of Finance and Human Resources at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and before that was Authorised Officer and Global Head of Finance & Accounting at Speech Processing Solutions GmbH and worked many years for Philips Austria. The native of Linz studied business administration at the Vienna University of Economics and Business.
Vice-President of Research – Natural Sciences and Technology
Georg Kaser
University of Innsbruck
Research Center Climate - Cryosphere and Atmosphere
Georg Kaser is one of the most influential climate researchers in the world. He has collaborated twice as lead author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the World Climate Council of the United Nations, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. Kaser is a member of numerous international scientific organisations, including an Honorary Member of the International Association of Cryospheric Sciences. Moreover, he has been a full member of the Division of Mathematics and the Natural Sciences of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) since 2017.
Vice-President of Research – Humanities and Social Sciences
Eva Kernbauer
University of Applied Arts Vienna
Department of Art History
Eva Kernbauer is a professor of art history at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. Her research focuses on concepts of time and history in contemporary art as well as art, politics, and social modernization processes around the early 19th century. She is active in numerous national and international scientific committees and organizations and has also been a corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences since 2023.
Vice-President of Research – Biology and Medicine
Christoph Binder
Medical University of Vienna
Clinical Institute for Laboratory Medicine
Christoph Binder is a professor of atherosclerosis research and Deputy Head of the Clinical Institute for Laboratory Medicine at the Medical University of Vienna/Vienna General Hospital. The laboratory physician researches the role of immune functions in cardiovascular diseases. Until 2021, he was also principal investigator at CeMM - Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He is a member of several national and international scientific societies.
