Applications Now Being Accepted for the New FWF ASTRA Awards

Advanced postdocs can apply for the first round of FWF ASTRA Awards starting on July 15, 2024. The new career funding program is intended to give particularly talented researchers the opportunity to make the leap to the top of their field of research. Applications will be accepted until October 3, 2024, and funding decisions will be made in June 2025.
July 15, 2024
Hand hält Glühbirne in Sternenhimmel
More opportunities for postdocs: The first FWF ASTRA call starts on July 15, 2024 © Pexels/Bertelli

The new ASTRA program was designed to ensure a fairer distribution of funding and career opportunities among R3-level researchers and to better cover the needs of individual disciplines, including arts-based research. ASTRA aims to attract the best researchers to Austria or to encourage them to stay here. The main objectives of the program are help researchers consolidate their careers and establish themselves as independent researchers, to offer long-term career prospects, and to promote highly qualified women.

The Austrian Science Fund (FWF) will be awarding around 18 ASTRA Awards each year, 50% percent of which are reserved for excellent proposals submitted by women. The five-year awards are endowed with basic funding of €500,000 to 1 million. Postdoctoral researchers who completed their doctorate between two and nine years ago (the cut-off date is September 30 of the year of submission) are eligible to apply. 

Selection by international jury: Shortlist place guarantees FWF funding

Funding is awarded in two stages, starting with an international review of all applications. Based on these reviews, the Scientific Board draws up a shortlist of candidates to be invited to a final jury hearing. Those researchers who are nominated for the shortlist but are not ultimately selected by the ASTRA jury can receive individual project funding of €450,000 (Merit Award). This means that even a shortlist nomination guarantees project funding from the FWF.

Key points of the FWF ASTRA awards

  • Target group: Postdocs (established researchers, R3-level)
  • FWF funding volume: €21 million per year (incl. Merit Awards)
  • Project volume: Approx. €1 million on average over five years
    • €500,000 to 1 million in project funding and a €200,000 tenure package for women
    • Tenure packages are awarded after women are granted a permanent position, a tenure-track position, and/or granted permanent status in an existing tenure-track position by the research institution (no later than three years after the start of the project)
  • Number: Approx. 18 ASTRA Awards planned per year (50% of the grants are reserved for excellently reviewed proposals submitted by women)
  • Application requirements: Between two and nine years after completion of a doctorate with the additional restriction “twice in a lifetime” (only two submissions are possible); researchers already in a permanent position are not eligible to apply
  • Open topic: Open to researchers from all basic research disciplines including arts-based research
  • Award: Two-stage decision-making process with a hearing before an international jury and final decision by the Scientific Board in June
  • Advancement of women: Tenure package of €200,000 for women and other women-specific measures
  • Merit Award: Shortlist nomination by the Scientific Board guarantees three years of FWF Principal Investigator Project funding (€450,000) in the event of a rejection by the ASTRA jury

Further information