Fund for the Promotion of Scientific Research

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FWF The Science
Fund (FWF)
logo
legal form Established institution (Research and Technology Promotion Act FTFG)
founding 4th March 1968
Seat House of Research, Vienna (Austria)
motto We strengthen the sciences in Austria
main emphasis Funding basic research
people Klement Tockner (President)
sales 230.8 million euros (approval volume 2018)
Website www.fwf.ac.at

The Fund for the Promotion of Scientific Research (FWF) - in short: Science Fund - is Austria's central institution for the promotion of basic research . He is equally committed to all sciences and his activities are based exclusively on the standards of the international scientific community.

overview

According to his mission statement, he is equally committed to all sciences and his activities are based exclusively on the standards of the international scientific community. The FWF was founded in 1968 and is currently located in the House of Research in Vienna ; Most recently, its approval volume was 230.8 million euros (2018). The FWF has been headed by Vice President Christine Mannhalter and Managing Director Dorothea Sturn from August 17, 2015, Klement Tockner has been President and Artemis Vakianis Commercial Vice President since September 1, 2016 .

History of the FWF

On October 25, 1967 , the Austrian National Council, with the votes of the ÖVP and SPÖ, passed the Research Promotion Act (FFG), not to be confused with the Research Promotion Agency (FFG) . This law brought into being two research funding organizations with their own legal personality - the Fund for the Promotion of Scientific Research and the Research Promotion Fund for Business and Industry. The constituent assembly of the Science Fund, then still known as FFWF, took place on March 4, 1968 under the chairmanship of Federal Minister Theodor Piffl-Percevic in the audience hall of the Ministry of Education , after the senates and faculties of the eleven scientific universities had elected their representatives to the delegate assembly. A few days later, the assets and liabilities of the " Österreichischer Forschungsrat " association founded in 1960 were transferred to the fund .

The legal framework created by the FFG in 1967 has been changed twice to date, but this does not affect the essential elements and principles of the FWF. In 1981 the Research Promotion Act was first amended by the Research Organization Act (FOG). For the FWF, the law mainly brought about a change in the composition of its organs. Both the assembly of delegates and the board of trustees were expanded to include representatives from associations and interest groups. In 2004, in response to the Universities Act (UG) 2002, the second major reform took place, which reshaped the Austrian research funding landscape. The FWF was reformed, the expansion of the committees made in the FOG was essentially withdrawn. The FWF in its current form is an Austrian institution established by law (Research and Technology Promotion Act FTFG) with its own legal personality to promote basic research. With the FTFG, the FWF received new structures, strategic and operational units were separated. Since this reform, a supervisory board has controlled the work of the FWF.

Locations

Period address
1967-1972 Liebiggasse 5/1, 1010 Vienna
1972-1990 Garnisongasse 7/20, 1090 Vienna
1990-2006 Weyringergasse 33-35, 1040 Vienna
since 2006 Research House, Sensengasse 1, 1090 Vienna

aims

The mission statement, defined by the Science Fund itself, including its goals and principles, reads as follows:

Mission statement of the FWF
"We strengthen science in Austria"

Mission
The FWF serves the advancement of science at a high international level. It makes a contribution to cultural development, to the expansion of the knowledge-based society and thus to increasing added value and prosperity in Austria.

Goals of the FWF

  • Strengthening the scientific performance of Austria in an international comparison as well as its attractiveness as a science location, above all by promoting top-level research of individuals or teams, but also by contributing to the improvement of the competitiveness of the research institutions and the science system in Austria.
  • Qualitative and quantitative expansion of the research potential according to the principle of "education through research".
  • Increased communication and expansion of the interactions between science and all other areas of cultural, economic and social life, whereby the acceptance of science is to be strengthened through systematic public relations work.

Principles

  • Excellence and competition: The FWF's funding activities focus on scientific research that is committed to gaining knowledge, the quality of which is assessed according to the competitive principle through international reviews.
  • Independence: Creative basic research requires freedom. The FWF ensures freedom that protects science from the direct influence of interest groups. This is guaranteed by the independent legal status of the FWF.
  • Internationality: The FWF is based on international scientific standards and supports cooperation across national borders.
  • Equal treatment of all sciences: The FWF treats all researchers according to the same principles without preferring or discriminating against individual scientific disciplines.
  • Transparency and fairness: Avoidance of conflicts of interest, implementation of “checks and balances” in all procedural steps as well as clear communication of working methods and decision-making are cornerstones to ensure acceptance of the work of the FWF.
  • Gender mainstreaming: Equality between women and men in research is a matter of concern for the FWF, which is implemented in all areas through specific programs and gender mainstreaming.
  • Equal opportunities: Funding applications to the FWF are assessed regardless of the position and / or academic degree of the applicant.
  • Ethical standards: The FWF feels obliged to ensure compliance with the rules of good scientific practice and internationally recognized ethical standards in its sphere of influence.

Organs of the FWF

The organs of the FWF

Bureau

The Presidium coordinates the activities of the FWF. Its tasks include the strategic orientation as well as the development and further development of the funding programs. In addition, the Presidium is a negotiating partner for decision-makers in Austrian and European research policy, works with universities and other academic institutions at home and abroad, and represents the FWF on a national and international level. The Presidium is part of the Assembly of Delegates and the Board of Trustees . The vice-presidents head the respective FWF departments.

Supervisory board

The Supervisory Board passes resolutions on the financial statements and the annual budget, the multi-year programs and the annual work programs, and sanctions the decision of the Executive Committee when appointing or dismissing the management. He also prepares an election proposal for the office of president.

Assembly of delegates

The Assembly of Delegates makes resolutions on the rules of procedure for the Presidium, the Board of Trustees and for the Assembly of Delegates, the annual report and elects the President and Vice-Presidents, the members of the Board of Trustees and four members of the Supervisory Board.

Board of Trustees

The board of trustees decides on the funding of research projects and changes in the funding programs.

Office

The FWF office handles day-to-day business. It is led by the management (presidium) and is divided into the three areas of specialist department, strategy and service: The specialist departments include: biology and medicine, humanities and social sciences, natural sciences and technology, strategy - career development. The strategy area includes: international programs, national programs, strategy analyzes. The service departments include: communication, finance, auditing, IT, organization & personnel, legal & quality assurance.

Management

FWF Presidium
Period president Vice President
1967-1972 Hubert Rohracher
1972-1974 Theodor Leipert
1974-1982 Hans Tuppy Fritz Paschke
1982-1991 Kurt L. Komarek
1991-1994 Helmut Rauch Moritz Csaký, Helmut Denk
1994-2003 Arnold Schmidt Herbert Matis, Walter Knapp
2003-2005 Georg Wick
2005-2013 Christoph Kratky
2013-2015 Pascale honor friend Christine Mannhalter , Hermann Hellwagner, Alan Scott
2016 Klement Tockner Ellen L. Zechner, Gregor Weihs, Gerlinde Mautner Artemis Vakianis
FWF managing director
Period executive Director
1970-1988 Carl Kramsall
1978-1990 Raoul F. Kneucker
1990-2003 Eva luck
2003-2010 Gerhard Kratky
since 2011 Dorothea Sturn

On August 17, 2015, Vice President Christine Mannhalter took over the President's agenda from Pascale Ehrenfreund on an interim basis. The position of President became vacant when Pascale Ehrenfreund moved to the German Aerospace Center . Mannhalter headed the FWF until August 31, 2016. In May 2016, the biologist Klement Tockner was elected President of the FWF for four years.

The FWF process

All applications submitted to the FWF are subjected to a peer review process, whereby only the opinions of foreign experts are used. The number of reviews required for a decision depends primarily on the amount of the application. These reports are the basis for all funding decisions. This is intended to ensure the quality of research and its international integration. The FWF is equally committed to all sciences and does not use a quota system to control the distribution of funds between the individual subject areas. The average period of time between the receipt of an application by the FWF and the decision by the Board of Trustees is four to five months. The Board of Trustees meets five times a year.

FWF funding programs

Discovering new things - promoting cutting-edge research
Promoting talent - expanding human resources
Implementing ideas - interactions between science and society

Funding from the Science Fund is basically bottom-up , which means that there are no thematic specifications for the projects. The FWF programs are divided into three major areas, which in turn are subdivided into funding categories or funding programs. The funding itself is personal; the target groups range from individuals to interdisciplinary research groups.

Promotion of cutting-edge research

  • Individual project funding
    • Single projects
    • 1000 ideas program
  • International programs
    • Transnational funding activities
  • Focus programs
    • Special Research Areas (SFBs)
    • Research groups
  • Cooperation programs
    • Research groups
    • Zukunftskollegs
  • Honourings and prices

Development of human resources

Interactions between science and society

  • Funding of application-oriented basic research
    • Clinical Research (KLIF)
    • Quantum Research and Technology (QFTE)
  • Promotion of artistic research
    • Program for the Development and Opening of the Arts (PEEK)
  • Publication and communication funding
    • Independent publications
    • Refereed publications
    • Science communication program
  • Extension projects for FWF funding
    • Top Citizen Science funding initiative

facts and figures

In 2018, a total of 2,501 applications for funding of scientific projects were processed by the FWF Board of Trustees. The application volume in 2018 was 948.7 million euros. 684 projects with a funding amount of 230.8 million euros (2017: 217.3 million euros) were approved. This corresponds to an approval rate of 22.1% (women: 21.9%, men 22.3%).

With regard to the use of funds within the programs, 81.7% of the approved FWF funds were used directly for personnel costs. 4,155 people working in research were funded by the FWF in 2018. More than half of them are young researchers between the ages of 26 and 35.

The international appraisal of the project applications ("peer review procedure") is the heart of the "quality assurance brand FWF" propagated by the FWF. Since the turn of the millennium, the FWF has generally only allowed foreign reviews for the substantive assessment of applications. In 2018, the total of 4,726 FWF reports came from 69 nations. The average processing time between submission and decision for FWF programs with an ongoing submission deadline was 4.8 months in 2018.

In 2012, the FWF provided 91.7 million euros or 39.7% in the life sciences sector, 89.9 million euros or 39.0% in the field of natural science and technology and 49.2 million euros. Euros or 21.3% in the field of humanities and social sciences.

Project database

Information on all projects funded since 2000 can be accessed online via the FWF's project database. In addition to the coordinates of the project manager, there is a short version of the funded project. The various search masks offer various search options within the project database.

Info magazine

"Info" (proper spelling "info") was the FWF's science magazine in print. It was published four times a year with a circulation of around 10,000 or an online edition. The FWF info reported on news from the (science-political) world of basic research. The info appeared for the first time in 1991 as an employee magazine and, after a brief interruption in early 2000, was subjected to a first relaunch in 2001. In 2008, a substantial renovation and expansion took place, followed by a relaunch in terms of design and content.

scilog

In 2015 the info magazine was replaced by the online edition scilog. The research magazine presents FWF-funded projects from all scientific disciplines. In research portraits, guest contributions by Schrödinger scholarship holders and videos, people from the scientific community report on their research activities and provide an insight into the world of basic research. In the "Interview & Opinion" section, respected personalities are discussed about questions about the future of research and about development and innovation for the benefit of society.

Open Access

According to the result of a European study from 2015, the FWF has been pursuing one of the world's most effective open access strategies among funding organizations for many years. 92 percent (as of December 31, 2018) of the publications resulting from FWF-funded projects have now been published Targeted FWF funding models freely accessible.

15 years of Open Access Policy

In 2003, by signing the "Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities", the FWF committed itself to supporting free access to scientific publications on the Internet, for example through the certification of Open Access publishers.

Until around 2009, the FWF's support focused on three areas:

  • The FWF's media channels provided the scientists with background information about the importance and the existing possibilities of open access.
  • An Open Access Policy that has been gradually developed since 2004 resulted in one of the world's first mandates from a funding organization in 2006. It obliges all project managers and their employees - if legally possible - to make their publications freely accessible on the Internet either by archiving an electronic copy in a suitable repository or by publishing them in an open access medium.
  • With the "Refereed Publications" program, the FWF has been paying the costs for Open Access for refereed publications up to three years after the end of the project since 2004.

Since 2009 the FWF has intensified its activities to improve awareness of Open Access in all disciplines:

PubMed, by far the largest bibliographic database in the life sciences (around 23 million entries), operates the full-text archive PubMedCentral with almost 3 million freely accessible refereed journal articles. The FWF has been participating in this initiative since the beginning of 2010 through the partner repository Europe PubMedCentral. At the end of 2013, over 4,000 refereed publications from FWF projects were freely accessible in PubMedCentral.

In the humanities and social sciences, where book publications continue to play a major role, voluntary open access funding was initially offered from 2009. Specialized editing and Open Access have been mandatory since the end of 2011. From 2014 translations into English will be added. The book publications are freely accessible in the FWF e-book library and in other international repositories.

In mid-October 2012, the FWF announced an initiative for start-up funding for Open Access journals in the humanities and social sciences. At the end of 2013, eight projects from the Open Access Initiative were funded. In 2013, the FWF will spend around 2 million euros (1% of the total budget) on open access publications.

On the initiative of the University Conference (UNIKO) and the FWF, the Open Access Network Austria (OANA) was established in November 2012. It is intended to optimize the coordination of activities between research institutions, sponsors and research policy.

In December 2012 a discussion on the establishment of a "University / Academic Press" was initiated. The FWF suggests whether it would not make sense for Austrian research institutions to jointly found an internationally visible "University / Academic Press" based on the Anglo-Saxon model. This "University / Academic Press" would establish a rigorous peer review, offer professional editing, publish Open Access and provide the scientists with infrastructural and technical support in the publication of Open Access publications.

The FWF has been publishing its publication costs on the Zenodo online portal since 2013. The data is also included in the Open APC data set in order to enable international cost monitoring. Between 2013 and 2015, the FWF funded a total of 8,211 publications (excluding books) to the tune of 16.9 million euros.

In 2014, the FWF's Open Access guidelines were updated, with a focus on the providers' quality assurance standards. The FWF only supports Open Access publications that are freely accessible from the time of publication.

In 2018, the FWF supports the open access initiative cOAlition S, which advocates full and immediate free access to research results as part of Plan S.

The most recent update of the FWF's Open Access Policy will take place in early 2019. This also makes free access to research data mandatory, provided that it is legally, ethically and technically possible. cOAlition S will publish revised guidelines for Plan S in May 2019. Plan S applies to all research projects of the FWF that are submitted from January 1, 2021.

International activities

  • Science Europe: Science Europe acts as the new umbrella organization for European research funding and research sponsoring organizations based in Brussels. The FWF contributes its expertise in selected areas of the Science Europe agenda.
  • ESF (European Science Foundation): FWF President Pascale Ehrenfreund is a member of the Governing Council of the ESF.
  • ERC (European Research Council): The FWF provides one of the national experts on the ERC program committee.
  • ERA-Net scheme of the EU: The FWF is involved in ERA-Nets, an initiative of the European Commission with the aim of improving the coordination of national research and funding activities. In 2012 there were three new initiatives with the participation in CHIST-ERA 2 (information technology), NEURON II (neurosciences) and Infect-ERA (infectious diseases). In total, the FWF is (or was) involved in 22 ERANet initiatives.
  • Multilateral activities: Multilateral project funding includes all projects funded within the framework of transnational, mostly thematic calls for proposals with at least three participating countries. A characteristic is the central submission and assessment based on the framework conditions jointly worked out by the funding organizations involved. In 2012, the FWF participated in eight multilateral programs as part of ERA-Net calls for proposals.
  • Bilateral activities: As part of the traditionally close cooperation between the funding organizations in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (DA-CH - DFG , FWF, SNF ), the lead agency process was initiated in 2008. For faster and easier processing of transnational projects, it sees the responsibility of the respective main project organization. In addition to the existing agreements with partner organizations in Germany, France, Switzerland, Slovenia and Korea, the FWF signed a lead agency agreement with OTKA (Hungary) in 2012. New joint tenders were launched in 2012 with the Department of Science & Technology (India), OTKA (Hungary) and FNR (Luxembourg).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ FWF: New FWF Presidium takes office . Article dated September 1, 2016, accessed September 2, 2016.
  2. ↑ a b orf.at - Christine Mannhalter leads FWF . Article dated August 17, 2015, accessed September 26, 2015.
  3. ↑ https://www.fwf.ac.at/de/ueber-den-fwf/leitbild/
  4. ↑ https://www.fwf.ac.at/de/ueber-den-fwf/organisation/
  5. ^ Astrobiologist Ehrenfreund new head of the FWF
  6. ↑ a b c d Biologist Klement Tockner new FWF President
  7. ↑ FWF: Christine Mannhalter ( Memento of the original from September 26, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved August 28, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.fwf.ac.at
  8. ^ FWF: Management . Retrieved August 28, 2015.
  9. ↑ derStandard.at - biologist Klement Tockner new FWF President . Article dated May 17, 2016, accessed May 17, 2016.
  10. ↑ https://www.fwf.ac.at/fileadmin/files/Dokumente/Entscheid_Evaluation/fwf-entscheidungsverfahren.pdf
  11. ↑ https://www.fwf.ac.at/fileadmin/files/Dokumente/Ueber_den_FWF/Publikationen/FWF-jahresberichte/fwf-jahresbericht-2013.pdf
  12. ^ Pablo Markin: The Austrian Science Fund Endorses de Gruyter for its Open Access Publishing Program. In: OpenScience . April 14, 2017. Retrieved April 17, 2017 .
  13. ↑ Open Access Policy for FWF projects. Retrieved November 12, 2014 .
  14. ↑ https://www.fwf.ac.at/de/ueber-den-fwf/internationale-aktivitaeten/fwf-international/

Coordinates: 48 ° 13 ′ 10.1 ″  N , 16 ° 21 ′ 8.7 ″  E