International Cooperation as a Factor for Success

Collaborating with leading researchers from around the world – thanks to the FWF’s close cooperation with partner organizations in and outside Europe, Austrian researchers have access to a wide range of bilateral and trilateral funding options. A current example of bilateral cooperation is the call for proposals with the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR). Nineteen French-Austrian research projects resulting from this call have been approved for funding.

November 11, 2025

Vier Hände fügen vier bunte Puzzleteile zusammen — Cutting-edge research is based on global cooperation: The FWF offers researchers numerous funding opportunities for collaborative projects with colleagues and peers from other countries. © Unsplash

New approaches in cell biology, improving cybersecurity, and a sociological analysis of how families are changing – these are three examples of topics from the latest funding call financed jointly with the French partner agency ANR, the 17th call since the program was launched in 2009. To date, around 190 projects have been jointly financed by France and Austria from this funding cooperation alone. For a look at the 19 approved projects, please see the FWF Research Radar page or the ANR partner announcement.

Combining knowledge and resources

International cooperation is an important success factor because complex research often requires specialized expertise, technical infrastructure, or data that no single country can provide on its own. The focus is on exchanging knowledge, collaborating with leading international colleagues, and the opportunity to tap into a broader source of expertise. International cooperation allows teams to disseminate results more rapidly, avoid duplication of work, and leverage synergies, accelerating innovation and knowledge gain both nationally and internationally.

Internationality a cornerstone of FWF funding

The FWF’s Principal Investigator Projects International program provides researchers from Austria with access to a wide variety of funding agreements with leading research nations, including France, Germany, and Switzerland. Other funding opportunities include multilateral networks, such as multiple ERA-NET participations and European partnerships. The importance of international projects is also reflected in the FWF’s annual funding statistics. In 2024, new research projects worth €54 million were financed through the FWF’s international programs.