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FWF Annual Report 2014

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FWF Annual Report 2014 Annual Report 2014 2014 Annual Report Annual Report 2014 We strengthen science and the humanities in Austria. Annual report submitted to the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy in accordance with Art. 4 para. 1 of the Austrian Research and Technology Funding Act (FTFG). Vienna, March 2015. CONTENTS Table of contents 4 The FWF’s corporate policy 49 Bodies of the FWF Supervisory Board, FWF Management, FWF Board, 6 REPORT OF THE MANAGEMENT Assembly of Delegates, International START/ On the state of scholarly research in Austria Wittgenstein Jury, SciComm Jury, PEEK Board 20 GENERAL ACTIVITY REPORT 59 FWF Office Development of funding activities 63 Balance sheet, income statement, 28 FWF funding categories notes on the financial statements 31 APPENDIX / TABLES 68 Index of tables and illustrations ANNUAL REPORT 2014 3 INTRODUCTION The FWF’s corporate policy »We strengthen science and the humanities in Austria « The Austrian Science Fund (FWF) is Our objectives To emphasise and enhance the inter- Austria’s central funding organisa- To strengthen Austria’s international active effects of science and research tion for basic research. performance and capabilities in science with all other areas of culture, the and research as well as the country’s at- economy and society, and in particu- Our mission tractiveness as a location for high-level lar to increase the acceptance of sci- The purpose of the FWF is to support scientific activities, primarily by funding ence and research through concerted the ongoing development of Austrian top-quality research projects for individ- public relations activities. science and basic research in line with uals and teams and by enhancing the high international standards. In this competitiveness of Austria’s innovation Our values way, the FWF makes a significant con- system and its research facilities; Excellence and competition: The tribution to cultural development, to the To develop Austria’s human resources FWF’s funding activities focus on re- advancement of our knowledge-based for science and research in both qualita- search efforts devoted to generating society, and thus to the creation of val- tive and quantitative terms based on the new knowledge; the quality of re- ue and wealth in Austria. principle of research- driven education; search is assessed by international 4 ANNUAL REPORT 2014 The FWF’s corporate policy INTRODUCTION referees on a competitive basis. The FWF treats all researchers ac- search is a top priority at the FWF, and Independence: Creativity in basic re- cording to the same standards, with- our organisation pursues this objective search requires freedom. Thanks to out giving preference to or discrimi- through specific programmes and its legally independent status, the nating against individual disciplines. gender mainstreaming in all fields. FWF is able to ensure this freedom Transparency and fairness: The FWF Equal opportunities: The FWF evalu- and to safeguard science and re- makes every effort to avoid conflicts ates grant applications without search from the direct influence of of interest, to implement checks and regard to the applicant’s position or special interest groups. balances in all stages of its proce- academic degree. International orientation: The FWF dures, and to communicate its meth- Ethical standards: The FWF is dedi- is guided by the standards of the in- ods and decision-making process cated to ensuring that the rules of ternational scientific community and clearly in order to ensure acceptance sound scientific practice and interna- actively supports cooperation across of its activities. tionally accepted ethical standards national borders. Gender mainstreaming: The equal are observed within the fund’s Equal treatment of all disciplines: treatment of women and men in re- sphere of influence. ANNUAL REPORT 2014 5 REPORT OF THE MANAGEMENT Report on the state of scholarly research in Austria Too much room for improvement In this section, the FWF seeks to fulfil 1. On the state of Austrian ments: The implementation of the Aus- its legal mandate to report on the or- research trian RTI strategy adopted in 2011 is ganisation’s activities and on the grinding to a halt; Austria’s level of re- state of scholarly research in Austria. By international comparison, Austria has search intensity is estimated at 2.88% made progress in catching up as a re- for 2014, a slight decline compared to In 2014, the research landscape saw a search location in recent years, and a the previous year (2.9%). Austria still en- number of developments at the nation- number of institutions in the country are joys a high ranking (10th place) on the In- al and international level which may even among the best in the world. This is novation Union Scoreboard (IUS) for well have significant impacts on the supported by numerous reliable indica- 2014, but the country still clearly lags be- future course pursued in Austrian tors, such as Austria’s excellent perfor- hind the innovation leaders. In addition, research policy. This section focuses mance in ERC calls, the country’s pro- Austria has remained in the middle on the key events in the year under gress in establishing and expanding range among industrialised nations in review and the resulting prospects, IST Austria and other research “heavy- rankings based on citations of scholarly especially for the FWF. weights”, and the universities’ develop- publications (see Table 4, p. 32). ment of specific profiles. Recent- ly, however, a slowdown has These developments have been observed in these develop- been observed with concern by key players in the field and analysts of Austrian RTI policy. In its Report on Austria’s Scien- tific and Technological Capabili- ty for 2014, the Austrian Coun- cil for Research and Technology Development confirmed these concerns: “If Austria does not wish to fall further behind 6 ANNUAL REPORT 2014 Report on the state of scholarly research in Austria REPORT OF THE MANAGEMENT in global competition and lose any pros- in the year 2014 and clearly demonstrat- trian Science Fund (FWF) is clearly un- pect of catching up with the leading ed one thing in particular: The country derfunded in comparison to other coun- group, it must accord the highest priority will not be able to achieve this goal tries (such as Switzerland, Germany, the to education, research, technology and without sustained long-term invest- Netherlands, Finland and Great Britain). innovation as well as provide the neces- ments in basic research. In this context, bibliometric analyses sary funding and also make structural ad- The fact that the FWF plays a key role in show that FWF-funded projects in par- justments.” this process is also evidenced by a ticular enjoy an especially high level of in- Renowned experts (Christian Ke- study commissioned by the Austrian ternational visibility (including higher uschnigg and Andreas Schibany from the Ministry of Science, Research and numbers of citations). At the same time, Institute for Advanced Studies [IHS], Economy entitled “Strengths in the In- it can be observed that scientists and re- Wolfgang Polt from Joanneum Re- novation System: Scientific Profile De- searchers with experience in FWF-fund- search, Jürgen Janger from the Austrian velopment and Economic Synergies”, ed projects have greater chances of suc- Institute of Economic Research [WIFO]) which appeared in early 2015. The study cess when applying for European Re- almost unanimously concluded that was carried out by a number of re- search Council (ERC) funding. In addi- the IUS underestimated the signifi- nowned experts from the Austrian Insti- tion, it is important to highlight the cance of mid-tech industry market tute of Technology (AIT), Joanneum Re- FWF’s role as a source of funding for jun- leaders in Austria. Nevertheless, they search, the Centre for Social Innovation ior researchers.” also note that Austria needs highly (ZSI), the Institute for Advanced Studies aggressive strategies to promote (IHS) and the Austrian Institute of Eco- On that basis, the authors issue the fol- high-tech development, radical innova- nomic Research (WIFO). lowing recommendations: tions and startups, which in turn re- » increase the FWF’s budget substan- quire basic research, startup initiatives The authors issue a number of very clear tially in order to achieve approval rates and venture capital. and empirically well-founded recommen- on par with those observed in coun- The debate on whether Austria is capa- dations with regard to the FWF. In their tries such as Switzerland; ble of advancing to the status of an in- analysis, they note the following: “Sup- » increase coverage of overhead costs novation leader was especially intensive port for basic research through the Aus- for research institutions; ANNUAL REPORT 2014 7 REPORT OF THE MANAGEMENT Report on the state of scholarly research in Austria » reinstate the Translational Research million to the FWF in the federal budget uisite is the basic research community Programme; and proposal for the 2016 to 2018 period. and research institutions – as the main » strengthen interdisciplinary research. This allocation provided the FWF with a organisations engaging in this type of In addition, the authors of the study new, sound basis for planning in an al- research in Austria – are accorded a highlight that the political implementa- ready strained budget situation. For the central role in this context and that all of tion of these recommendations would time being, the new budget has ena- the creative forces in Austrian science also increase the efficiency of the Aus- bled the FWF to continue investing in and research are allowed to unfold. trian science and research system sig- the work of Austria’s most outstanding nificantly because the resources for research teams – and thus also in the 2. International developments outstanding research proposals which country’s junior researchers. are rejected for budgetary reasons However, these measures have only The continued advancement of cooper- would not go to waste.
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