Endowments for science

Tomorrow Tuesday, January 28, President Thomas Henzinger will take part in a panel discussion on the importance of charitable foundations as partners for science and research. According to the organizers, the Council for Research and Technology Development and the Fundraising Federation, Austria is limping behind the general trend, one reason being the lack of appropriate legal frame work for charitable foundations. One intention of the event is to raise the awareness for the special importance of scientific foundations by referring to best practice models in Germany and Switzerland in order to convince decisions makers in politics to improve the framework for charitable endowments.

IST Austria has so far managed to acquire 17 million euros in donations, 10 million coming from the Invicta Foundation of entrepreneur Peter Bertalanffy. In appreciation of the donation the first lab complex was named Bertalanffy Foundation Building. The acquisition of donations and other third-party-funds like Austrian and European research grants are a central part IST Austria’s funding scheme. Up to half of the total budget depends on these sources of funding; the federal state rewards these acquisitions by matching the donations.