Austrian Institute of Technology

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AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH

logo
legal form Company with limited liability
founding June 29, 1956 (as SGAE Austrian Study Society for Atomic Energy , 2006-09 Austrian Research Centers )
Seat Vienna (headquarters)
management Wolfgang Knoll , Anton Plimon
Number of employees approx. 1300 (as of 2017)
Branch Research and development, scientific teaching and services
Website www.ait.ac.at

The AIT Austrian Institute of Technology ( AIT ) is one of the largest non-university research institutions in Austria . It operates several locations across Austria.

history

In 1956 the Austrian Study Society for Atomic Energy Ges. M. b. H. (SGAE) founded in Vienna. The aim of the SGAE was to prepare Austria for the entry into the nuclear age . For this purpose, research in the field of nuclear energy and reactor technology was carried out in international cooperation in Seibersdorf .

In 1958 this company bought a 110  hectare site in Seibersdorf (southeast of Vienna) after negotiations in Götzendorf and in the area between Maria Ellend and Regelsbrunn had failed. The Seibersdorf reactor center was built on this site between 1958 and 1960 . The central research device was the Adapted Swimming Pool Type Reactor Austria  (ASTRA), the first research reactor in Austria . In addition to institutes for electronics, physics, chemistry, metallurgy and radiation protection, an interim storage facility for low-level radioactive waste was also built.

Particularly in the development of high-temperature reactors , successes could be achieved in Seibersdorf. Two expansion stages were planned for the center: In a first step, the ASTRA reactor was to be expanded into a material test reactor with an output of 15  MW . In a further step, a prototype of a nuclear power plant was to be built. For financial reasons, however, there was never an expansion.

Since nuclear energy did not develop into the leading technology, as was assumed in the 1950s, but oil became the most important energy source, research also had to be diversified at the Seibersdorf Reactor Center. After Austria withdrew from nuclear power ( Atomic Barrier Act  1978), the original task was no longer applicable, only the research reactor continued to operate. This departure from the focus on nuclear energy was also reflected in the change of the name to Forschungszentrum Seibersdorf . The nuclear reactor was decommissioned in 2004.

Right from the start, SGAE was committed to application-oriented contract research. This research concept was an important differentiator to basic research and university research. According to this concept, the income from contract research was supposed to finance the maintenance of the research center, but this did not succeed. The Republic of Austria still pays around a third of the costs.

In 2006 the management was partially re-appointed and the division into a holding company was reversed, in which the former subsidiaries were reunited in a GmbH. The official company name was then changed to Austrian Research Centers  GmbH - ARC.

On June 15, 2009, the former Austrian Research Centers were renamed AIT Austrian Institute of Technology . Today the Austrian Institute of Technology is Austria's largest non-university research institution and operates at several locations.

organization

Ownership

50.46% of the owners are the Republic of Austria ( Federal Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology ) and the Federation of Austrian Industries (Association for the Promotion of Research and Innovation) with 49.54%.

The chairman of the supervisory board is the former finance minister Hannes Androsch .

Departments, locations and holdings

The AIT Austrian Institute of Technology is now divided into eight centers:

  • Energy
  • Health & Bioresources
  • Digital Safety & Security
  • Vision, Automation & Control
  • Mobility Systems
  • Low emission transportation
  • Technology Experience
  • Innovation Systems & Policy

The main company has three subsidiaries, two of which have their own brand identity:

  • Seibersdorf Labor GmbH - laboratory services and training in special areas of physics and chemistry
  • Nuclear Engineering Seibersdorf GmbH (NES) - treats and temporarily stores radioactive waste from Austria

LKR Leichtmetallkompetenzzentrum Ranshofen  GmbH (Light Metal Technologies) is part of the Center for Low-Emission Transport . In addition, AIT is involved in the COMET K1 center CEST - competence center for electrochemical surface technology in Wiener Neustadt (33%)

AIT locations are:

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. See lit. http://www.rechnungshof.gv.at/fileadmin/downloads/_jahre/2013/berichte/teilberichte/bund/Bund_2013_10/Bund_2013_10_3.pdf .
  2. Seibersdorf is now the "Austrian Institute of Technology" ( Memento from August 9, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) , science.orf.at
  3. Locations: AIT Austrian Institute of Technology ( Memento from January 29, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), ecoplus. Niederösterreichs Wirtschaftsagentur GmbH, ecoplus.at → Technologie & Research , accessed April 4, 2013
  4. ^ Seibersdorf Labor GmbH
  5. ^ Nuclear Engineering Seibersdorf GmbH
  6. a b LKR Leichtmetallkompetenzzentrum Ranshofen GmbH ;
    [1] (PDF file). Fill-Academy, November 5, 2012, Gurten (pdf, fill.co.at; 4.3 MB) - example of the institute's work
  7. Competence center for electrochemical surface technology (cest.at) ;
  8. locations ait.ac.at,
  9. Seibersdorf Academy ( Memento of the original from July 19, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.seibersdorf-laboratories.at archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , seibersdorf-laboratories.at (https)