Austria
Last updated on 
Mar 22, 2022

National Open Access Desk

University of Vienna, Austria
University of Vienna, Austria
  • Overview

     Austria plays an active part in the European Research Area. 22 public and 11 private universities, 19 universities of applied sciences, as well as public research organisations are acting in the field of research and development.

    EOSC in Austria

    EOSC national representatives

    EOSC Austrian Governance Board Country Delegate is Stefan Hanslik from the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research. 

    Stefan Hanslik gives answers to these questions and explains his role in the Governance Board in the following three video interviews: 

    The videos were produced within the Austrian role as a partner in the H2020 project EOSCSecretariat. They are licensed with an open CC-license, so we encourage further reuse and dissemination.

    Austrian Preparation for EOSC Contribution:

    In the call for proposals "Digital and social transformation in higher education", some submissions also revolved around the topic of Open Science and Open Access. One notable example is "Austrian Transition to Open Access 2" (AT2OA²) the continuation of AT2OA, which aims to further promote the free accessibility of scientific publications. This also applies to the projects "RIS Synergy", "Austrian DataLab Austria" and "FAIR Data", which are combined in the Research Data cluster and are being implemented (under the lead of Vienna University of Technology and Graz University of Technology). 

    They are among those projects that will further advance the European Open Science Cloud. EOSC is a data infrastructure referred to as the "Internet of scientific data and data services" or European Open Science Cloud, i.e. a Europe-wide user-friendly environment of digital research data consisting of existing e-infrastructures across national and disciplinary borders. It aims to provide European researchers with access to first-class computing, storage and analysis capacities located in Europe. This will also facilitate the open exchange of data, e.g. as part of the "Open Research Data Pilot". To achieve this goal uniform international standards are needed.

    In 2018, during the Austrian Presidency of the Council of the European Union and through the Vienna Declaration on the European Open Science Cloud, the EOSC Governance was launched at the University of Vienna.

    EU Funded Projects

    EOSC Pillar in Austria - AUSSDA / Vienna University Library

    EOSC-Pillar is one of several Horizon 2020 projects aimed at building the Open Science and FAIR data-based European Open Science Cloud (EOSC): the focus is on data management, data services and data policy in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany and Italy.

    EOSC will support the infrastructures and services to increase the FAIRness of data across national and disciplinary boundaries. It involves communities, stakeholders, infrastructures and researchers to actively shape these processes. Joint developments on an organizational, technical or legal level make EOSC-Pillar a catalyst for the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC).

    EOSC Secretariat - TU Wien

    Austrian EOSC Secretariat team: Andreas Rauber, Paolo Budroni (Austrian National E-IRG Delegate), Barbara Sanchez, Juliana Giroletti, Katharina Flicker, Bernd Saurugger  

     

    national overview

    Support and Landscape

    The National Research Environment
    Major research funding bodies

    Austrian Science Fund FWF

    The Austrian Science Fund (FWF) is Austria's central funding organization for basic research. The purpose of the FWF is to support the ongoing development of Austrian science and basic research at a high international level. Therefore, the FWF makes a significant contribution to cultural development, and to the advancement of our knowledge-based society.

    Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG)

    The Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) is the national funding institution for applied industrial research in Austria. The FFG offers a comprehensive range of services for Austrian enterprises, research institutions and researchers – from the management of public funding programmes to consulting services in all phases of technology development and innovation, from support for integration into European research programmes and networks to the promotion of Austria's interests at the European and the international level.

    Austria Wirtschaftsservice Gesellschaft (aws)

    Austria Wirtschaftsservice Gesellschaft mbH (aws) is the Austrian federal promotional bank. It assists companies in their implementation of innovative projects by granting loans, awarding subsidies and issuing guarantees at favourable interest rates, particularly in cases in which it is not possible for these companies to obtain the necessary funds in a sufficient amount from other sources of financing. In addition, it provides support in the form of specific information, advisory and other services to prospective, established and expanding companies.

    Research funding Ministries

    Federal Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology (bmvit)

    Information about funding programs and open tenderings are available mainly in German on the ministries websites. A service called Förderkompass is provided by the bmvit which aggregates information about current different research funding programs and institutions.

    Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (bmbwf)

    There is a wide range of research in Austria and current research programs and projects. Furthermore an initiative called Forschungsatlas provides all links and records in social media about research in Austria in real time. Information about funding programs and open tenderings are available mainly in German on the ministries websites.

    Further funding bodies

    Academy of Sciences (OeAW)

    The OeAW as the largest non-university research institution cultivates discourse and the cooperation between science, the public, politics and the economy and practices applied and open basic research at its 29 institutes at the highest international level.As a public institution, the OAeW advances national and international scientific cooperation, offers researchers far-reaching advancement and career-development opportunities and supports up-and-coming scientists with fellowships as well as training and advanced training. The OAW sustainably supports the development of Austria as an innovative and future-proof knowledge-based society.

    The Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft

    Founded in 1960, the Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft (LBG) is a research institution with a thematic focus on medicine, life sciences and the humanities, social sciences and cultural sciences, and is specifically targeting new research topics in Austria. Together with academic and implementing partners, the LBG is currently running 20 Ludwig Boltzmann Institutes (LBIs) and develops and tests new forms of collaboration between science and non-scientific actors such as companies, the public sector and civil society.
    Named after the famous Austrian physicist, mathematician and philosopher Ludwig Boltzmann, the LBG still takes its lead from his wide range of academic interests, by pursuing interdisciplinary approaches. Socially relevant challenges, to which research can contribute, are to be recognized at an early stage and taken up. In 2016, the LBG Career Center, which is supporting 200 pre and postdocs, has been set up. In addition, the LBG Open Innovation in Science Center (LBG OIS Center), which is revealing the potential of open innovation to science, was launched.
    The LBG is financed by a mix of public and private funding, the total budget for the year 2016 amounted to 31.3 million euros. About 31 percent of the funds come from the budget of the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research. The Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft employs a total of approximately 550 people. Since the comprehensive reorganisation of the LBG in 2002, LBIs can only be established on the basis of calls for proposals and must operate under the scrutiny of international expert review.

    Christian Doppler Research Association (CDG)

    The Christian Doppler Research Association promotes the cooperation between science and business. Specifically, this takes place in specially established research units with fixed terms, in which application-orientated basic research is pursued: Christian Doppler Laboratories at universities and non-university research institutions, Josef Ressel Centres at universities of applied sciences.Under the direction of highly qualified scientists, research groups work in close contact with the commercial partners on innovative responses to business-related research issues.

    Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB)

    The Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB) has a long tradition of promoting research: Through its Anniversary Fund, the OeNB supports outstanding scientific work above all in the field of economics and medicine, but also projects related to the social sciences and the humanities.In addition, the OeNB sponsors a number of grants and awards, such as the Klaus Liebscher Award or the Olga Radzyner Award, and offers a visiting research program for young scientists.

    Austrian Partnership Programme in Higher Education & Research for Development (APPEAR)

    APPEAR is a programme of the Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC) with the aim to implement its strategy for support of higher education and research for development on an academic institutional level in the ADC’s southern priority countries and key regions and in three priority countries of the South Caucasus and Black Sea Region.The overall objective is to strengthen the institutional capacities in higher education, research and management in the addressed countries through Academic Partnerships with Austrian higher education institutions and master’s and PhD scholarships as a contribution to effective and sustainable reduction of poverty.

    Commission of Development Research at the OeAD–GmbH (KEF)

    The Commission for Development Research at the OeAD-GmbH (KEF) aims at bridging the gap between science and development by supporting a development-oriented approach in research and science. The main principle is the incorporation of the development policy approach in science and research.

    national landscape

    National Initiatives

    The OANA was established in 2012 as a joint activity under the organisational umbrella of FWF and UNIKO. The network ties in with the uniko Open-Access Recommendation (12.01.2010) and the FWF-Positionpaper (17.01.2012) and develops specific recommendations for the implementation of Open Access in Austria. In November 2015 the OANA released 16 recommendations for the transition towards Open Access in Austria published in the paper Recommendations for the Transition to Open Access in Austria and in June 2016 OANA released the Vienna Principles a vision for scholarly communication.
    • Coordination of and recommendations for the Austrian OA-task/ activities of research institutions, funding organisations and research policies (including international developments)
    • Positioning towards the information providers (mainly publishing houses)
    • Contact persons and source of information for scientists, research institutions and (research-) policies

    RDA-Austria
    Research Data Alliance Austria (RDA-AT) is a national RDA node dedicated to representing emerging research and data management communities throughout Austria. RDA-AT will operate as a formal participant of RDA Europe, linking Austrian data management initiatives and RDA Working and Interest Groups, providing assistance in adoption of RDA recommendations, and allowing Austrian stakeholders to benefit directly from RDA support mechanisms. These new connections will bring key Austrian issues to the global data management table, and global discussions back to Austria.

    RDA Austria's primary responsibilities include:

    • Facilitating national and transnational engagements, including the creation of formal Working Groups to address data-related issues critical to the Austrian research community and the public at large
    • Organizing events and training to support the adoption of best practices in research data management across Austria
    • Providing an incubation space for the development of shared services and common standards, including policy development, data management planning, and infrastructure interoperability requirements
    • Serve as an information conduit and professional connector for international activities, including the European Open Science Cloud and the EGI Federated Cloud
    • Promoting local adoption of RDA recommendations with the support of RDA seed funding
    • Connecting Austrian research data stakeholders
     
    Promoted by the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF) "Austrian Transition to Open Access - AT2OA" is a project involving 21 Austrian Universities under the lead of the University of Vienna. Its aim is to contribute to the transformation from Closed to Open Access of scholarly publications. The funding pool (Hochschulraumstrukturmittel HRSM) of the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research is being used as seed funding for cooperation projects across Austrian Universities, the goal being to promote lasting positive effects and importantly an increase of efficiency in the field of administration and innovation for teachers and students.Supporting measures for the transition to Open Access include the redesigning of licence agreements with publishers, as well as, spurring researchers into publishing through Open Access agreements and encouraging new Open Access strategies for publications. The following topics will be organised in sub-projects: (1) analysis of potential impacts of an Open Access transition, (2) funding of Open Access business models, (3) establishment of Open Access publication funds and (4) promotion of Open Access publications and alternative Open Access publication models.

    e-Infrastructures Austria and its follow-up project e-Infrastructures Austria PLUS

    In November 2016, the last General Assembly of e-Infrastructures Austria took place at the University of Vienna. The importance of this project has been demonstrated in its results and the many initiatives which have subsequently arisen out of it.Notably, a survey on the handling of research data in Austria was conducted, directed at the scientific and artistic-scientific personnel of 20 public universities and three extramural research institutions in Austria. Consequently templates for data management plans and a Model Policy for Research Data Management (RDM) at Austrian Research Institutions were prepared, as well as, publications e.g. guidelines, FAQ’s and other deliverables from cluster groups. In addition to this, the success of this project can be found in the implementation of repositories across Austrian research institutions and in the eminent follow-up project.In January 2017 e-Infrastructures PLUS started as a project within 9 Universities, coordinated by the University of Innsbruck. Like the previous project it is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (HRSM). The project’s main focus is on 1) analyzing reference projects, 2) implementing a road-map based approach on, for instance, research data management policies, standardized metadata, persistent identifiers, as well as, provisioning for uses within schooling while underpinning relevant support, and 3) building technical infrastructures.

    Digital Humanities Austria (DHA)

    Digital Humanities Austria is a platform for the dissemination of the digital paradigm in Austrian humanities studies. The virtual network is run jointly by the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the University of Vienna and the University of Graz, is supported by these institutions and the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research and will serve as a staging area for all kinds of DH research activities.

    AUSSDA – the Austrian Social Science Data Archive

    AUSSDA – the Austrian Social Science Data Archive has a mission to become a leading supplier of social science data in Austria. As a certified repository, AUSSDA will systematically collect, document and disseminate digital quantitative data and will guarantee its long-term availability, along with any accompanying documentation, while adhering to international standards. Its main data so far consists of survey data from sociology and political sciences. By putting open access first, wherever possible, data usage can be extended beyond the Austrian and international scientific community. AUSSDA is based at Vienna University Library and Archive Services with partners at the Universities in Linz and Graz. This new social science archive has received funding (HRSM) from the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research, ensuring the archive’s work until late 2019. After an evaluation period, the infrastructure will hopefully be integrated within the organizational and infrastructural settings of the universities, making it an integral part of the Austrian social science community. Being the official Service Provider for Austria, AUSSDA is integrated within the European ESFRI roadmap via its membership in the Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives (CESSDA).

    Open Education Austria

    Open Education Austria started as a new project to set up a national infrastructure for Open Educational Resources (OER). Services of e-learning centres, computer centres and libraries of the partnering universities will be linked together to support lecturers in creating these educational resources. In support of these aims, a consulting service for media didactics, infrastructure for video production, e-tutors, a clearing body for copyright issues and a portal to publish these educational resources (corresponding to the owner principle under a Creative Commons License) will be developed. The project is funded by Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (HRSM).

    Citizen Science in Austria

    Österreich forscht
    The Citizen Science Network Austria (CSNA) and its associated online platform Österreich forscht are the main portals to citizen science in Austria. The members of the CSNA have agreed to work together to further develop citizen science in Austria, to secure the quality of citizen science projects and to foster citizen science in general. Several working groups invite interested persons of all backgrounds to collaborate on diverse topics within citizen science, such as quality criteria, biodiversity databases, open science or legal aspects. All citizen science projects will be listed on Österreich forscht, after careful evaluation of the projects according to the Quality Criteria for Citizen Science Projects (https://zenodo.org/record/3648636#.XnjFP3J7lPY). Furthermore, interested persons can find general information about citizen science and read and engage in the blog section of Österreich forscht. Österreich forscht is also the main website for the annual Austrian Citizen Science Conference, which is organised since 2015.

    Citizen Science - Center for Citizen Science
    ZSI - Zentrum für Soziale Innovation

    See also the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research: about Citizen Science

     

    Other initiatives


    See also: OpenInnovation.gv.at & Strategy: Open Innovation Strategie für Österreich – Ziele, Maßnahmen und Methoden (in German)

     

    Other Austrian networks for the further development of Open Science

     

     See also: Open Science at the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (in German) 

     

     

     
  • Open Science Policy

    National Policy

    Austria has not implemented a national Open Access/Open Science policy yet.

    Taking the ROARMAP into account, there are 14 research organizations and two funders, which already have one.


    As of 2020/01:
    The latest Austrian government programme, includes a commitment regarding actively supporting Plan S towards the implementation of Open Access. Subsequently, the principles of Plan S are supposed to be implemented by all universities and extramural research institutions in Austria.

    national policy

    Funder policy

    Institutional Policy

  • Infrastructure & EOSC

    Key networks & Aggregators

    Scientific output can currently (as of March 2020) be deposited in 41 Austrian multidisciplinary and discipline-specific repositories, which are listed in OpenDOAR.

    national infra

    Data repositories

    National publishing initiatives

    According to the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) there are currently 53 Austrian OA journals.

    A mentionable initiative in Open Access publishing is Open Access 2020. It builds on the Berlin Declaration and is pursuing the large-scale implementation of free online access and mostly unrestricted use and re-use of scholarly research articles - and therefore, the overall transition of scholarly journals from a subscription to an Open Access model.
    The Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST Austria) and the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) have officially signed the Expression of Interest. ACIB GmbH - Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology has formally declared its endorsement.

    National agreements with publishers

    The central purpose of the Austrian Academic Library Consortium KEMÖ is (1) the coordinated acquisition and management of electronic resources (primarily databases and e-journals) and the usage rights of these resources within consortia, (2) coordinated resource administration, (3) a unified voice to represent the consortia members and (4) joint collaboration for national and international Open Access initiatives.
    Within these duties and responsibilities the consortium developed during the last years Open Access agreements of the member institutions with the respective publishers.
     

    The following Open Access agreements with scientific publishers currently exist in Austria. As mentioned, the Austrian Academic Library Consortium KEMÖ negotiates most of the agreements.

    OA books

  • Training & Support

    Training and Support is mainly taken up/handled by the organisations themselves.

    The OANA (Open Science Network Austria) working group "Open Science trainings" focuses on concrete Open Science tools that are used throughout the entire research life cycle. Also, it organizes Austrian-wide workshops and trainings four times a year, mainly for researchers and support staff, on how to use these tools. The aim is to inform as broad a research community as possible about Open Science tools and therefore promoting the dissemination of Open Science methods and facilitating their implementation in everyday research work.

    Useful links

    Budroni, P., Hanslik, S., Sánchez Solís, B. (2019). Developing EOSC. A view on an ongoing process, as per 31 January 2020. https://www.aco.net/developing_eosc.html?L=1

    Danowski, Patrick: An Austrian proposal for the Classification of Open Access Tuples (COAT) – Distinguish different Open Access types beyond colors. In: Mitteilungen der VÖB 72 (2019), Nr. 1: AT2OA, S. 59-65. https://doi.org/10.31263/voebm.v72i1.2276

    Mayer, K. (2016, October). Open Science: von der Vision zur Praxis. Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.163155

    Kraker, P., Dörler, D., Ferus, A., Gutounig, R., Heigl, F., Kaier, C., … Wandl-Vogt, E. (2016, June 15). The Vienna Principles: A Vision for Scholarly Communication in the 21st Century. Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.55597

    Bauer, B., Blechl, G., Bock, Ch., Danowski, P., Ferus, A., Graschopf, A., König, Th., Mayer, K., Reckling, F., Rieck, K., Seitz, P., Stöger, H., Welzig, E. (2015, November 12). Empfehlungen für die Umsetzung von Open Access in Österreich. Zenodo.http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.33178

    Bauer, B., Blechl, G., Bock, C., Danowski, P., Ferus, A., Graschopf, A., … Welzig, E. (2015, November 30). Recommendations for the Transition to Open Access in Austria. Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.34079

    Schmidt, N. (2014). Der Goldene Weg des Open Access zum funktionalen Publikationswesen. Handlungsoptionen für die Universität Wien (The Golden Road of Open Access to a Functional Publishing System. Courses of Action for the University of Vienna). u:scholar – Institutional Repository der Univ. Wien. https://phaidra.univie.ac.at/o:337723.

    Sánchez Solis, B. (2014). Factors for Enabling Sharing and Reuse of Research Data. Phaidra. https://phaidra.univie.ac.at/o:343651.

  • Statistics

    View Statistics in the country page of Open Science Observatory

  • News

    New Webinars in the Series
    8 Mar 2022

    New Webinars in the Series "RDM in Austria" Now Online!

    Since its start in 2020, the "Research Data Management in Austria" webinar series has brought together researchers and experts from support services such as libraries and IT centers to learn about RDM and Open Research. The series is a joint effort of the FAIR Data Austria project and the Austrian Network for Repository Managers (RepManNet). After fifteen successful events covering a wide range of...

    Data Librarian Training in Vienna
    10 Sep 2020

    Data Librarian Training in Vienna

    Digital change and the rapid developments in the information sector and the area of research data management are creating new challenges and fields of activity. Continuous increase in the amount and complexity of data can be observed - specifically in scientific research fields, research communities as well as research support services at universities and university libraries. Accordingly, there i...

    Austrian Universities: funding for new projects – tender for digital and social transformation
    30 Mar 2020

    Austrian Universities: funding for new projects – tender for digital and social transformation

    In the course of the call for tender, "Digital and Social Transformation in Higher Education", which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Forschung - BMBWF), all Austrian public universities and various other educational institutions were able to apply and submit their project ideas. The offered funding was set high w...

    OANA Network Meeting in Vienna
    25 Feb 2020

    OANA Network Meeting in Vienna

    The goal was to meet up and discuss the results and current status of the OANA working groups as well as Open Science developments in Austria. Slides of the presentations are available in German. On 23 January 2020 the 5th network meeting of OANA (Open Science Network Austria) took place at the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research in Vienna. Following Falk Reckling's (FWF D...

    DOAJ strategy meeting at Vienna University Library - Interview with Lars Bjørnshauge
    4 Dec 2019

    DOAJ strategy meeting at Vienna University Library - Interview with Lars Bjørnshauge

    "DOAJ operates an education and outreach program across the globe, focussing on improving the quality of applications submitted."[1] DOAJ is an independent, free of charge, online directory that indexes Open Access and peer-reviewed journals - with the help of many volunteers who are evaluating the new applied journals. It is funded 40% from sponsors and 60% from members and publisher me...

    Austria launches its ORCID Consortium
    28 Jun 2019

    Austria launches its ORCID Consortium

    In January 2019, the TU Wien (represented by the TU Wien Bibliothek) and the University of Vienna (represented by the Vienna University Library) joined forces to lead the ORCID Austria consortium currently comprising of eleven institutions, which aims to increase the uptake and relevance of the ORCID iD as a unique identifier for researchers in Austria. Having an ORCID iD improves the internationa...

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