FWF Der Wissenschaftsfonds

In the past year, 49 female researchers were selected for the FWF’s career development programmes ESPRIT, Hertha Firnberg and Elise Richter. At the FWF’s invitation, they and many other successful female researchers came together in Vienna’s Museum Quarter to receive their awards, and to discuss women’s careers in science.

Learn more: An Evening Honouring Women in Cutting-Edge Research

At the second FWF Board meeting in 2022, applications amounting to roughly €26.7 million were approved out of a total volume of €98.5 million, resulting in an approval rate of 27.1 percent across all programmes. Out of 298 submissions, a total of 85 outstanding projects received FWF funding.

Learn more: FWF Approves €26.7 Million for Outstanding Projects

Its projects help lay the foundation for progress, innovation, and prosperity: The Austrian Science Fund (FWF) is currently supporting 4,458 researchers in 2,588 ongoing projects throughout Austria—more than ever before. In 2021, the amount of funding awarded increased by five percent to €256 million. With “Emerging Fields”, a new programme of the excellent=austria Initiative is starting in 2022 for research proposals that have the potential to trigger a paradigm shift in their field. The FWF is doubling the support for science communication to boost confidence in science.

Learn more: FWF Sums up 2021: Austrian Basic Research on the Rise

The FWF is continuing to roll out the excellent=austria Initiative: With “Emerging Fields”, a new funding programme is starting in 2022 for highly innovative, cooperative research projects that have the potential to trigger a paradigm shift in their field. Consortia of up to seven researchers and their teams have up to €6 million at their disposal. First projects will be approved at the end of 2023.

Learn more: Second excellent=austria Funding Programme “Emerging Fields” Starts in September 2022

In its first tranche of funding in 2022, the FWF is helping to launch 166 projects to the tune of approx. EUR 52 million out of a total volume of EUR 207.5 million in applications. This corresponds to an approval rate of 25 percent across all programmes. Grants have been awarded for the second time in the new ESPRIT career programme, thus providing support to 16 researchers. In addition, 13 projects in the field of arts-based research will now receive a total of five million euros in funding.

Learn more: Cutting-Edge Research in Austria: Austrian Science Fund (FWF) Approves EUR 52 Million for Outstanding Projects in Basic Research

Scholars and scientists directly affected by the war in Ukraine can be included in ongoing FWF research projects throughout Austria with immediate effect. The FWF will allocate one million euros as funding for such crisis support. All researchers currently leading FWF projects are encouraged to involve Ukrainian colleagues in their scientific work.

Learn more: Crisis Support for Researchers from Ukraine

Science and scholarly research is predicated on being open to the world, and on exchange and peaceful cooperation. As a funding organisation, the FWF will do everything in its power to help researchers maintain their cooperation with Ukrainian colleagues throughout this difficult period. In so doing the FWF will continue to promote peace and democracy in the future.

Learn more: Standing in Solidarity with Ukraine

More and more regions in the world are suffering from extreme weather events caused by the climate crisis. The provision of drinking water is becoming a problem with far-reaching consequences in affected areas, necessitating innovative scientific approaches, models, and methods. Thus, 32 funding agencies, including the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), are calling on researchers to submit transnational projects as part of the European “Water4All” initiative.

Learn more: The Future of the Global Water Supply

Research is a promise. It is certainly one of the biggest promises humankind has ever made.
It pledges that what seems impossible can be possible.

Learn more: Good Health and all the Best for 2022

Answers to global challenges such as migration require the knowledge and cooperation of researchers from all over the world. This is why the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) is a partner in the “Integrated Approaches to Human Migration/Mobility in an Era of Rapid Global Change” funding initiative of the Belmont Forum.

Learn more: New International Funding Initiative: Migration in an Era of Rapid Global Change