A Look into the Archives: Historical FWF Funding Data Available Online

Innovations are often based on scientific discoveries made decades ago. Where did an idea originally come from? Who has conducted research on a specific topic in Austria at some point? When did the scientific community start focusing on a particular research question? With the Research Radar Archives, the FWF is now expanding its online information to include funding data dating back to 1974.

October 7, 2025

Laptop mit Ansicht der Website des Historischen Forschungsradars vor der ehem. Postsparkasse am Georg-Coch-Platz — With the Research Radar Archives, the FWF is now expanding its online information to include funding data dating back to 1974. © FWF

Whether in quantum research, medicine, or archaeology – it often takes several generations of researchers for true scientific progress to develop. Especially in basic research, the knowledge gained can extend back over many years and decades. In order to make the historical development of research funding in Austria even more accessible, the FWF is now making funding data from 1974 to 1994 available online in its new Research Radar Archives. The Archives feature gives users of the current Research Radar page additional search options and is intended to further strengthen knowledge transfer.

Five decades of FWF funding at a glance

Based on data sourced from digitalized annual reports, research projects from 1974 to 1994 were processed and entered into an online database. The current Research Radar and the Research Radar Archives together cover almost 30,000 FWF-funded projects from the last five decades. And top researchers at Austria’s universities and non-university research institutions are ensuring that this number continues to rise with their excellent basic research in FWF-funded projects.