Ideas with Impact

Austrian archaeologists have been studying the ancient trading city of Velia for over 50 years. Verena Gassner was head of the excavations in southern Italy for years, focusing on aspects such as methodological innovations and urban planning analyses. The long-standing continuity of Austrian involvement in Velia has had many positive effects, including providing training to young researchers and strengthening the local economy.

Controlling large quantum computing systems presents developers with major technical challenges. As part of his basic research funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), the Tyrolean quantum researcher Wolfgang Lechner came up with the idea of a new type of architecture for quantum computers, in which the complex networking of many qubits – a frequent stumbling block in quantum computing – becomes a thing of the past. The spin-off company ParityQC, where Lechner and his team are applying the technology, has rapidly become a success story.

The drug thalidomide, which was approved in 1957 and caused severe fetal deformities, went down in history as a medical catastrophe. Researchers have now discovered that the mechanism behind this fatal effect holds the key to a whole class of new therapeutic drugs. Georg Winter from CeMM – Research Center for Molecular Medicine in Vienna is researching these agents, known as glue degraders, which can specifically switch off disease-causing proteins. The spin-off company Proxygen is continuing with the approach and applying it to drug development – well-known pharmaceutical companies are already on board.