FWF Funds 91 New Research Projects

In its most recent decision-making round, the Scientific Board approved 91 projects with a total funding volume of €38.2 million. Please see the FWF website for a list of all newly approved research projects and statistics on the most recent Scientific Board meeting. 

National and international projects funded 

The majority of this funding is for multi-year Principal Investigator Projects in all disciplines. The FWF has approved 35 projects at the national level, with a funding volume of €14.6 million. In the area of bilateral and multilateral or international cooperation (International Principal Investigator Projects ), 14 new research projects have been approved for funding, involving participating partners from 12 countries. In some cases, the decisions of the partner organizations are still pending. 

Career and mobility programs 

The FWF’s ESPRIT career program supports highly qualified postdocs in all disciplines. A total of 44 applications (worth €14 million) were up for decision at the most recent Scientific Board meeting. Of these, 14 excellent peer-reviewed projects with a volume of €4.5 million were approved, 10 of which are headed by women. In the Elise Richter program for women senior postdoc researchers, 13 applications with a volume of €4.2 million were on the agenda, and projects with a funding volume of €1.8 million were approved. The FWF’s Erwin Schrödinger program gives for the most part young researchers the opportunity to gain experience at top research institutions abroad. The co-financed return phase prevents brain drain, ensuring that the knowledge and experience gained abroad can be used to benefit researchers’ careers in Austria. At the recent meeting, five applications with a grant amount of around €0.9 million were approved.

Quantum physicist Hans J. Briegel is the 2023 FWF Wittgenstein Award winner 

The Scientific Board's June meeting also included the decision on Austria's most highly endowed research awards: Based on the recommendations of an international jury of experts, the FWF selected quantum physicist Hans J. Briegel (University of Innsbruck) to receive the FWF Wittgenstein Award and eight additional researchers for the FWF START Award: Barbara Mayer (University of Vienna), Stephanie J. Ellis (University of Vienna), Máté Gerencsér (TU Wien), Richard Küng (University of Linz), Stephan Pühringer (University of Linz), Clemens Sämann (University of Vienna), Marcus Sperling (University of Vienna), and J. Lukas Thürmer (University of Salzburg).
The total application volume for the FWF START Awards was around €158 million. Approximately 48% of the proposals came from the natural sciences and technology, 29% from biology and medicine, and 23% from the humanities and social sciences. The eight funded projects, two of which are headed by women, are in a wide variety of disciplines and will each receive up to €1.2 million in funding.