Research in Austria

Austria plays an active part of the European Research Area. To further strengthen Austria´s position as a knowledge society and to foster innovation, investments in research and development have been increased in recent years, working towards the goal of becoming one of Europe’s most innovative countries.

To achieve this goal Austria also strives to provide favorable conditions and adequate support for researchers. With its active research landscape, a dynamic and innovative economy and a high quality of life, Austria is also an attractive destination for international researchers and their families.

To the Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020
To the Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020 - Factsheet

To the booklet Wissenschaft in Österreich/Science in Austria 2020

About Austria

The Research Landscape

Vision of science in Austria is focused on achieving the best possible influence of research and development activities on the economy and society. Main facilitators for the fullfillment of this vision are research organisations, which are listed on this website.

Detailed information also can be found in the

Researcher's Guide to Austria (1.05 MB)

R&D Organisations

Numerous institutions and bodies are acting in R&D in Austria. The site gives a survey of the Austrian Research Landscape but NOTE: The following divisions and classifications of research institutions are neither authoritative nor exhaustive!

Universities & FH

Public Organisations

Industry/Private Sector

Research Cooperation

www.forschungsatlas.at (in German only)
Information on science and research in Austria is pooled in one place.

Austrian Polar Research Institute (APRI)
The Austrian Polar Research Institute (APRI) is a research consortium that promotes and coordinates research and education in the area of polar sciences at the participating organisations.

Austrian Technology in Space
Austrian space industry and space research are presented on this website with the aim of increasing their international visibility and to support networking of national and international players.

Complexity Science Hub Vienna (CSH)
Societies become more and more dependent on their ability of handling, interpreting, and making sense of complex systems. Understanding complex systems on a quantitative and predictive basis rests on the ability to combine complex systems science (mathematical concepts and methodology) with big and comprehensive datasets. The number of experts in this new scientific field is limited which poses a bottleneck to understand and eventually manage complex systems. The objective of the hub is to host, educate, and inspire complex systems scientists who are dedicated to collect, handle, aggregate, and make sense of big data in ways that are directly valuable for science and society. Focus areas include smart cities, innovation dynamics, medical, social, ecological, and economic systems. CSH is a joint initiative of AIT, IIASA, Medical University of Vienna, TU Graz, TU Wien, and Vienna University of Economics and Business.

ViennaBioCenter
The Vienna BioCenter is one of Europe’s biggest life sciences hubs with over 1,800 employees from 70 different countries. Its research institutes and biotech companies are among the world leaders in their fields.

TU Austria
In 2010 the three Austrian Universities of Technology, the Vienna University of Technology, the Graz University of Technology, and the Montanuniversitaet Leoben founded "TU Austria".The TU Austria-Universities join forces and use synergy effects in order to accomplish more in research, teaching and higher-education policy and to be convincing as a strong partner in the industrial and economic sectors with their cumulative expertise.

ACR – Austrian Cooperative Research
ACR is a network of private research institutes offering applied R&D for companies. Our demand-oriented services are tailored to meet the needs of SMEs, in order to support their innovation efforts, to provide the necessary know-how and to strengthen their competitiveness.

IUFRO – International Union of Forest Research Organizations
IUFRO is a global, not-for-profit, non-governmental organisation for the promotion of international cooperation in forest-related research, based in Vienna, Austria.

VSC – Vienna Scientific Cluster
The Vienna Scientific Cluster is a collaboration of several Austrian universities that provides supercomputer resources and corresponding services to their users.

Funding Bodies

Women & Science

Austria has put in place various measures to increase the rate of women in science and industry. This section is devoted to gender issues containing special information for female researchers. A systematic structure on gender issues in science, links to research funding especially for woman and to national projects supporting woman in research have been pooled.

Further information

Research Policies

In this section you can find further information and a collection of documents about research policies.

National Level

European and International Level

Relevant Links

Practice Guide for Integrity and Ethics in Science (published in 2020; "Praxisleitfaden für Integrität und Ethik in der Wissenschaft"; in German only)
Universities Austria (uniko) adopts new guidelines for standards of good scientific practice and ethical principles.
Research Infrastructures in Austria
The database for research infrastructures in Austria is maintained by the Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy (BMWFW).
acib - Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology
The Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology (acib) is bridging the gap between science and industry and connects about 200 partners in the field of industrial biotechnology.
AplusB Centres
AplusB supports innovative, technology-oriented spin-offs from the academic sector.
ÖGMBT (mainly in German)
Austrian Association of Molecular Life Sciences and Biotechnology (Österreichische Gesellschaft für Molekulare Biowissenschaften und Biotechnologie)
Eurodoc is the European Council of Doctoral Candidates and Junior Researchers. It is an international federation of 35 national organisations of PhD candidates, and more generally of young researchers from 34 countries of the European Union and the Council of Europe.
life-science.eu (in German only)
Career network for academics in environmental and life sciences
http://go-europe.at and Living and Working in Europe (pdf)
Website and folder about important European Union service points in Austria
www.europass.at
Europass aims at improving the documentation and transferability of qualifications and competences.
www.innovationaustria.at
Here you find all relevant information on the topics science, research and innovation in Austria.
www.forschungsatlas.at
The Research Atlas is an online platform designed to concentrate information on the Austrian science and research landscape at a single site. It facilitates networking and highlights Austria’s science and research achievements in “real time”.
ASEA-Uninet - ASEAN-European Academic University Partnership Network
ASEA-Uninet supports the exchange of knowledge between partner universities in the member countries in Europe and South-East Asia.
The Global Incubator Network (GIN) is Austria's one stop shop for investors, startups and incubators. It connects the Austrian startup ecosystem with international partners interested in the Austrian and European markets respectively. Based on international cooperation agreements, it has a special focus on hotspots in Asia (Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Isreal and South Korea).
Research and Development 2019 | Vienna in Figures
This brochure offers an overview of the most important aspects of developments relating to Vienna as an Research & Development (R&D) location. Available in German and English as pdf.
The Austrian Startup Monitor 2019 is the second report about the status, perspectives and ecosystem of startups in Austria. The report is based on a survey of 710 founders and CEOs of Austrian startups conducted in the summer of 2019. In addition, the team used data on all startups that have been identified in Austria since 2008.
The Office of Science & Technology (OST) at the embassy of Austria in Washington, DC, USA, is a strategic interface for science, research and science policy between Austria and North America.
Research and Innovation Network Austria (RINA)
RINA serves as a strategic foundation for understanding the needs of Austrian scientists and scholars in North America. It also provides a basis for exchanges between the scientific community in Austria and Austrian scientists in North America.
AScinA – Austrian Scientists and Scholars in America
Network of Austrian scientists and scholars in the USA and Canada

In recent years Austria has invested substantially in research and development, reaching the second-highest research intensity in the EU.

Even though further measures are required to reach Austria’s goal of becoming one of Europe’s most innovative countries efforts undertaken in recent years such as the reorganisation of non-university research institutes and the implementation of new funding programmes have already made an impact. The numbers of scientific publications and patent registrations have increased and the collaborations between science and business have been expanded. In addition, Austrian research organisations and enterprises have successfully participated in the EU research framework programmes. Austria is among the three most successful countries regarding the success rate in Horizon 2020.

New measures to achieve a better environment for research are put in place continuously, such as the increase of the research premium, which can be claimed for expenditures on R&D, to 14 % in the course of the latest tax reform.

Compared with 2017 the total amount of the Austrian Gross Expenditure on R&D (GERD) has risen by 5.6 %. Regarding the latest presumptions, in 2018, 49.5 % of total R&D expenditure were financed by domestic business, 34.1 % were contributed by the public sector, 15.8 % were financed from abroad and 0.6 % by the private non-profit sector.

According to the latest estimates of Statistics Austria € 12.34 bn have been spent on research and development (R&D) in Austria in 2018, representing a research intensity of 3.19 %.