FWF: High Demand for Research Funding Continues
The Austrian Science Fund (FWF) invested around EUR 340 million in 749 new research projects at universities and non-university research institutions last year. The FWF currently supports around 5,300 researchers – more than ever before. Due to increasing demand, particularly among early-career researchers, pressure on the approval rate remains high and the FWF continues to reject excellent applications.
Basic research in Austria is growing – and with it the demand for funding. These developments are reflected in the Austrian Science Fund FWF’s funding balance. Although the total funding volume for new research projects of around EUR 340 million, excluding approvals from the excellent=austria initiative, declined compared to the previous year, funding volumes increased by an average of 9 percent across all other programmes. With 749 newly approved projects, more top-level research projects than ever before were launched in Austria.
In total, the FWF currently supports more than 5,300 researchers at Austrian universities and non-university research institutions – a new record that highlights Austria’s scientific potential and the importance of FWF funding for the success of excellent research. The FWF’s highly competitive funding plays a central role in scientific excellence, economic growth, competitiveness and addressing societal challenges. Around EUR 136.4 million went to natural sciences and engineering, EUR 125.3 million to biology and medicine, and EUR 77.4 million to the humanities and social sciences.
“Research policy is future policy. Especially now, it is crucial to create opportunities and lay the foundation for strong, independent and forward-looking science in Austria. Securing record investments of around EUR 5.5 billion in the current RTI Pact is not a given: it is a clear political commitment. Investments in science are investments in innovation, social progress, quality jobs – and in a resilient democracy. An open society needs reliable knowledge, critical thinking and the courage to break new ground,” says Minister for Women, Science and Research Eva-Maria Holzleitner.
“More FWF-funded researchers than ever before are currently working to create new knowledge that leads to medical breakthroughs, technological innovations and solutions to societal challenges. In view of global crises and uncertainties, it is crucial to continue investing in the best ideas: this is the only way to secure innovation, economic strength and the ability to successfully meet future challenges. What may seem like pure curiosity-driven research today could become highly relevant for all of us tomorrow,” says FWF President Christof Gattringer during the presentation of the funding balance.
More applications than ever before – approval rate remains under pressure
Demand for third-party funding from researchers at Austrian universities and non-university research institutions remains high. Around 3,100 funding applications with a requested funding volume of more than EUR 1.5 billion were submitted last year, marking a new record. The number of applications from early-career researchers and international researchers increased particularly strongly. The approval rate across all programmes declined to 24 percent (2024: 24.4 percent). Based on the average of recent years, the FWF is unable to fund research projects with an annual volume of around EUR 60 million despite their excellent scientific quality. These “approved but not funded” projects therefore cannot be realised in Austria.
Strengthening Austria as a research location
The FWF funding balance demonstrates the importance of excellence-oriented and curiosity-driven basic research for Austria’s successful development as a research location. Numerous strengths and key innovation sectors – from quantum technologies and advanced materials to life sciences – are built on the results of hundreds of FWF-funded projects.
The funding programmes are intended to further expand top-level research in line with the goals of the federal government’s RTI Pact for the 2027–2029 funding period. This includes strengthening career support for early-career researchers and continuing the Excellence Clusters. The future scale of investment in these forward-looking areas, which secure Austria’s international attractiveness as a research location and create thousands of jobs – especially for young researchers – will be defined in a funding agreement between the FWF and the Federal Ministry for Women, Science and Research. Negotiations are currently ongoing.
Excellence initiative in full swing
As part of the excellent=austria excellence initiative, five additional Emerging Fields projects with a total funding volume of EUR 35 million were approved in March 2026. More than 1,000 researchers are now working in nine Excellence Clusters and eleven Emerging Fields.
Funding for all areas of modern top-level research
In addition to the research networks of the excellence initiative, the FWF continues to support the full spectrum of scientific disciplines and career stages. This includes flexible project funding at national and international level (EUR 218 million), career funding for early-career researchers (EUR 80 million), cooperative research projects (EUR 41 million), and science communication and citizen science (EUR 1 million).
Special programmes such as Arts-Based Research, Clinical Research, doc.funds and the Special Research Areas funded by the Austrian Future Fund strengthen a diverse and broadly based research landscape.
More than 5,300 people employed in FWF projects
Together with the newly approved projects, a total of 2,599 FWF-funded research projects were active at the end of 2025. These projects employ 5,311 researchers at universities and other institutions, 48 percent of whom are women. Particularly noteworthy is that almost 70 percent of funded researchers are early-career researchers under the age of 35. This underlines the central role of the FWF in training the next generation of top researchers.
More applications from early-career and international researchers
The FWF funding programmes are designed to attract the best national and international researchers to Austria. The share of international researchers is particularly high in the ESPRIT career programme. For almost half of all ESPRIT-funded researchers, FWF funding was a decisive factor in moving to Austria and establishing their scientific careers.
Thanks to additional resources from the Austrian Future Fund, the FWF has so far been able to meet growing demand. At the same time, additional funding needs in this area are becoming apparent.
International collaboration
FWF funding contributes significantly to positioning Austria as an internationally relevant research location. Around 75 percent of all ongoing FWF projects are conducted in collaboration with international partners. Numerous bilateral and trilateral funding opportunities facilitate cooperation with international colleagues.
With the new initiative “LUKE – Linking Ukraine to the European Research Area”, funded through Horizon Europe, the FWF and the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) are also creating targeted incentives for collaboration with Ukrainian researchers and strengthening Ukraine’s integration into the European Research Area.
More support for science communication
To further strengthen trust in science, the FWF will expand funding for Science Communication and Top Citizen Science from 2026 onwards. Instead of supporting 10 to 12 projects, 15 to 17 projects are expected to receive funding in the future.
International review by leading researchers
International quality standards determine the FWF’s funding decisions – scientific excellence is the sole criterion. In 2025, the FWF commissioned around 5,500 international reviews from more than 60 countries. Most reviews came from the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom.
Impact at all levels: researchers, start-ups and discoveries
FWF funding has diverse impacts – both short-term and long-term. Several researchers presented current examples of this impact together with Minister Eva-Maria Holzleitner and FWF President Christof Gattringer at the funding balance presentation: FWF Wittgenstein Award winner Elly Tanaka and incoming postdoc Tal Scully (IMBA – Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences) provided insights into new approaches in regeneration research. Computer scientist Ruth Breu (University of Innsbruck) presented a successful example of knowledge transfer into business: her FWF-funded project led to the spin-off company Txture, which has developed into a leading company in the field of cloud management platforms.