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. A total of €1.6 billion is thus available to cutting-edge basic research.
The Austrian Science Fund FWF has formed together with European research funding organisations a network called Weave to harmonise programmes for international cooperation and to create extensive opportunities for collaboration on basic research.
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.
The alpha+ Foundation was created as a non-profit federal foundation by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) in November of 2019 with the aim of providing additional support to researchers through private funding. One year later, seven researchers from the Erwin Schrödinger Fellowships Programme have received a “Rückenwind funding bonus” of the alpha+ Foundation for the first time. The goal of this funding initiative is to promote international knowledge transfer.
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 FWF is inviting tenders for a concept study showing options for an open source online tool that can be used to analyze which new fields of basic research are emerging in FWF-funded projects, in Austria, and worldwide.
The FWF has supported Austrian COVID-19 basic research to the tune of €6 million so far. The urgent fast-track procedure initiated by the FWF still runs until the end of March 2021.
The Austrian Science Fund (FWF) is gradually updating its application guidelines. The new guidelines are now available online for all programmes open year-round. The goal is to further simplify the submission process and to increase diversity and equality in cutting-edge research.
Research means exploring new horizons. It is often unconventional approaches that lead to groundbreaking innovations. Through the 1,000 Ideas Programme, the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) specifically supports high-risk research in Austria. The submission period for the second call starts on 16 November 2020.
An increase in the funding volume, longer project durations and rolling submissions—starting in April 2021, ESPRIT offers highly qualified postdocs an improved opportunity for advancing their academic careers. ESPRIT strives to support researchers as best as possible in their career development, to integrate them into Austrian cutting-edge research, and to further promote equal opportunities and diversity.
The Austrian Science Fund (FWF) is one of the Austrian partners participating in an EU-funded twinning project with Georgia. The goal is to strengthen the exchange of knowledge and collaboration in the fields of science and research in Georgia.
The Austrian Science Fund FWF is among the supporters of the international Initiative for Open Abstracts (I4OA). A broad alliance of publishers, research organisations, and other interested parties such as Wikimedia or Wellcome Trust has committed itself to promoting the unrestricted availability of abstracts of scholarly publications, particularly journal articles and book chapters.
At the end of 2020, Klement Tockner will leave the Austrian Science Fund FWF and become the Director General of the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research. The Austrian Science Fund FWF will be advertising for his successor.
Doctoral students are being offered a new career path in Austria: the funding programme doc.funds.connect enables universities of applied sciences and universities to offer joint doctoral training. Initiated by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF), the programme is open to mixed teams from both institutions. In cooperation with the Christian Doppler Research Association, the Austrian Science Fund FWF is launching a first call on 21 September 2020.
