2025 Elly Tanaka

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FWF Wittgenstein Awards

Elly Tanaka

Austria’s most highly endowed research award

With nominees named by the scientific community, winners selected by an international jury of experts, and a €1.9 million endowment that exceeds all other individual funding awards in Austria, the FWF Wittgenstein Award is unique in every respect. With this award, the FWF not only honors exceptional academic careers, but also offers researchers the resources they need to advance their own research work at the highest international level.

Group picture of the FWF ASTRA and Wittgenstein Award winners — Setting the stage for outstanding research: The researchers accepting their awards at the Austrian Science Awards ceremony. © FWF/Klaus Ranger

FWF Wittgenstein Award Winners in front of the camera

Target group

The funding program is aimed at outstanding researchers from all disciplines.

Funding goals

The program provides both recognition and support to excellent researchers (up to 60 years of age) who have already produced exceptional work and who occupy a prominent place in the international scientific community.

Funding period and funding amount

60 months
€1.9 million

Elly Tanaka 2025

In 2025, the award went out to biochemist Elly Tanaka. Elly Tanaka is a leading international expert on the regeneration of complex bodily structures. She uses the Mexican salamander axolotl, which has remarkable regenerative properties, as a model organism: The axolotl can regrow almost any part of its body within just a few weeks, an extraordinary ability which makes the salamander a superstar in regeneration research. She has been Scientific Director at the IMBA – Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences at the Vienna BioCenter since 2024.