Promising Research Ideas for Austria’s Future
Publishing Date:
Cutting-edge research always involves a risk, but if it succeeds, there is a good chance of making an innovation leap. Through the 1,000 Ideas programme, the FWF wishes to further enhance Austria’s innovative power by once again supporting high-risk research. Interest in the programme continues to be high during the second call, with 270 researchers submitting proposals. The new projects will be able to commence in summer.
The 1,000 Ideas programme supports unconventional projects and novel research approaches that have to potential to take an innovative leap. Embracing the motto ‘the courage to fail’, the programme gives researchers the freedom they need to develop pioneering research ideas which will later lead to new fields of research. Funded researchers receive between €50,000 and €150,000 for a project that lasts up to 24 months.
A total of 270 researchers submitted project ideas as part of the recently closed application period of the second call. 124 proposals were in the area of Biology and Medicine, 75 in the Humanities and Social Sciences, and 71 in the Natural Sciences and Engineering. Once again, a total of €3 million of funding is available this year.
As in the first call, project proposals are submitted in anonymous form and then selected in part at random and evaluated in a double-blind procedure by an international panel under the chairmanship of James W. Kirchner (ETH Zurich). Afterwards, the experts of the FWF Board will take the funding decisions based on the panel’s recommendations, and the approved projects can begin in July 2021.
“We are pleased by the great interest shown once again in the 1,000 Ideas programme and the many submissions from all fields of research”, said FWF Interim President Gregor Weihs and continued, “The aim is to enable researchers at Austrian research institutes to implement visionary ideas. This increases the chances of discovering new scientific approaches that bring forth innovations for the good of all.”
Further information: 1,000 Ideas programme