Image: Martin Abegglen [CC By-SA 2.0], via Flickr
Following federal budget announcements, uncertainty remains over agreed €1.1 billion for funder
Austria’s national funder of basic research has sounded the alarm over a “missing” plan for money that was promised to it by the federal government.
The Austrian Science Fund (FWF) said on 18 October that it reached an agreement with the science ministry in the spring on a 2024-26 budget for itself of €1.1 billion.
But after finance minister Magnus Brunner’s federal budget speech this week, the FWF said there is still uncertainty over whether this negotiated amount will remain in place for 2025 and 2026. It said the current federal budget provides research funding for 2024 as planned.
“We had hoped that the budget speech would make a clear statement about the three-year budget for the funding of basic research by the FWF.
“Unfortunately, this did not happen and we are now relying on further negotiations with the [science ministry] and [finance ministry] in order to get these research funds, which are so important for the universities, to the extent negotiated,” said FWF president Christof Gattringer and commercial vice president Ursula Jakubek.
The FWF said the ongoing uncertainty over the funding has left a “question mark” over the federal government’s investments in basic research, as the €1.1 billion for 2024-26 would give it longer-term planning security.
It said it was particularly concerned about the future of its Clusters of Excellence programme, which provides long-term funding for inter-institutional research collaborations on specific themes. In the scheme’s first round this year, the funder is providing about €81 million for five clusters to carry out work across five years, with a plan to spend €135m over 10 years.
The funder said that announcements in the budget would provide “solid financing for the universities until 2027”, but added: “At the same time, this longer-term planning security is still missing for the FWF.”
Research Professional News has asked the government for comment.