Petition to the Federal Government of Austria to support research and innovation in Austria

The current budget plans of the federal government are a clear contradiction of the government’s own statement that "research is one of the key factors for the economic future of the country." The proposed budget cuts threaten the future of the whole Austrian economy.

Especially in times of economic crisis, increased investment in research is important for the future development of the economy. Other countries are doing exactly this and are investing heavily in research. An uncoupling of Austria from this development would have disastrous consequences. Also the envisaged budget cuts for the FWF (Austrian Science Fund), the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and many other research initiatives will cause immeasurable harm to the country’s future.

Austria has impressively caught up as a research location in recent years. Top scientists from around the world have been brought to Austria. Even if financing is only temporarily suspended this situation will be noted among the international scientific community. The reputation of the country among top-scientists will be damaged in the long run. It is impossible to reverse such a negative reputation within a few years. We will not allow the destruction of what has labouriously been built up over past years by past governments.

With each project that cannot be realized, promising young scientists lose their jobs. The majority of these jobs are lost forever, because people then leave Austria to work in other, more promising countries.

There is no doubt that most of the current activities of the government to stabilize the economy make sense. But compared to these initiatives, the amount needed for research is only a fraction of these costs. Research and development are the main means to get over the crises and to strengthen the country in the long term.

• We encourage the current government to guarantee the gradual adjustment of financing over the next years through the so called “Forschungspfad”. The “Forschungspfad” must set aside the promised 2.3 Billion Euros for research over the next five years.

We therefore appeal to the scientific community and the entire Austrian society to support this cause! It's about the future development of this country! The federal government needs to be reminded of their duty to assure a sustainable, predictable and continuous increase in research budgets in Austria.