Funding acquired by IST Austria exceeds 100 million Euro

At the founding of IST Austria in 2006, 95 million Euro were put aside by the federal government as a conditional, performance-dependent budget that could only be secured if the Institute obtains the same amount in third-party funds by 2016. Few thought that IST Austria would be able to reach this ambitious target, which corresponds to about 500,000 Euro third-party funding per professor per year. But the numbers tell a different story: not only did the Institute reach the goal of 95 million Euro in third-party funding by the end of 2016 and is therefore able to access its entire conditional budget of the first ten years, it even exceeded the 100 million Euro threshold.

The amount of funding received through competitive international selection processes is a reliable indicator of a research institution’s performance, in addition to publications in renowned scientific journals. IST Austria has been exceptionally successful in this regard over the past years. 28 of the 45 professors currently under contract—more than 60 percent—have received a grant from the European Research Council. In the year 2016 alone, three advanced grants, two consolidator grants, and five starting grants were awarded to scientists at IST Austria.

But the ERC grants are not the only EU-funding that IST Austria has received. The graduate school is the beneficiary of the largest award received at the Institute so far: 4.4 million Euro were awarded to the interdisciplinary PhD program of IST Austria by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant from the European Union. The program started in autumn 2015 and supports PhD students during their first year. From the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), the Institute has received around 14.5 million Euro so far, including 3 START- and 2 Wittgenstein Awards. Additionally, professors on campus have participated in 9 collaborative FWF grants (SFB, DK, NFN) with researchers from other Austrian institutions.

Altogether, the Institute has acquired more than 83 million Euro in third-party science funding. In addition, IST Austria has received donations from the private sector worth about 18.5 million Euro. Together, this amounts to a sum greater than 100 million Euro.