An Overview by
Mag. Stephan Neuhäuser (Sept. 2000)(www.ostina.org/index2h.html)

Education, Science and Technology in Austria:
1945 - 1970
The Kreisky Years
The Ministry of Science and Research
1972 - 1999
1984 - 2000
2000
Schools (overview)
Universities/Polytechniques (overview)
S&T in Austria (an overview)
Stimulation actions in the area of basic research (an ovierview)
Stimulation of actions in the area of technological research (an overview)

1945 - 1970
The Austrian head of state is the president who is elected directly by the population every 6 years; he can only be re-elected once. Now we are seeing the second term of Mr. Klestil. The lower House Parliament ("National Assembly") consists of 183 members ("Nationalrat") and the Upper House (the "Bundesrat" with a varying number of members delegated by the provincial governments). The latter has some controlling competences, but does not play an important role in Austrian politics. The strongest political party in Parliament (Nationalrat) is the Socialdemocrat Party, followed by the Freedom Party who is only slightly stronger then the Christian-Conservative "People's Party"; then comes the Green Party; the Liberals were voted out of Parliament in 1999.
Parliamentary elections take place every 4 years. From World War 2 on Austrian politics were dominated by 2 parties: the Socialdemocrats and the christian-conservative so-called "People's Party"; the Communists played a small role in the late fourties and the "Freedom Party", founded in the late 1950s stayed a minor player and was partly a platform of either liberal or German-national thinking. A number of former Nazi party members joined this group and were among its founders. They usually reached up to approximatly 5% every election year.
From 1945 to 1966 the government was a conservative led coalition with the Socialdemocrats. During the coalition years the ministries were looked upon as either "red" (socialdemocrat) or "black" (conservative); many government posts down to the lowest ranks were given to either "red" or "black" protegés.
The Kreisky Years
After a 4 year intermezzo of absolute conservative majority the Socialdemocrats won a slight majority over the conservatives in 1970 and formed a minority government supported by the Freedom Party whom a more favourable election law was promised in exchange by the Socialdemocrats. This was Bruno Kreisky's first cabinett.
In 1972 early elections were called early and Kreisky won the absolute majority for the first time. For the second and third time the Socialdemocrats won the absolute majority in 1976 and in 1980.
The Kreisky years were the years of intense foreign policy by the Austrian government especially in the Near East; the United Nations moved to Vienna.
The ministries themselves were modernized, became more service oriented and in fact one of the first reforms in 1972 happened in the education and research field:
The Ministry of Science and Research
1972 - 1999
The old honourable "Ministerium fuer Unterricht und Kultus" who's roots reach back into the middle of the 19th century was split in two: into a the Ministry for Education Art and Church Affairs (Kultus) - containing primary, secondary and adult education - and the new Ministry for Science and Research - containing higher education and research. The first scienceminister was Ms Hertha Firnberg, a woman. Also something Austrians were not really used to then.
The major reforms initiiated by the Ministry of Science were - as it was called in Austria - to "open up" the universities both structurally and organisationally:
The organisational reforms were supposed to make academic life "democratic". As an example this means that almost every single decision concerning any Austrian university, faculty or institute is taken by a panel of professoers, assistant professors and students of that university, faculty or institute (this system is called "Drittelparitaet", the "three thirds parity").
The structural reforms on the other hand made it possible for many young Austrians - previously not able to - to go to university. The only requirement for students was a final matriculation exam; all fees were abolished. Grants (for about 10% of the students) covered practically all costs of living. In the wake of these reforms the so-called "mass university" evolved; wich means that nowadays in most studies (especially economics, law, medicine) very often professors are supposed to take care of 200 and more students at the same time.
The policy of the open university certainly led to an increase of the number of students and to more people getting basic higher education. But the dark side of this system is that the number of students virtually "exploded" and the rate of Dr.s stayed about the same as in 1972. At the same time the number of "drop-outs" soared. One measure to combat this was the introduction of new degrees: in the 1980s Master degrees were introduced in almost all studies and the Bachelor degree will come into effect from autumn 2000. Another measure - not intended to resolve the problems of the crowded universities in the first place - was the introduction of the "Fachhochschulen" which seems to become a big success. They resemble the Finnish Polytechniques and admit only a certain number of students each year, although there are no study fees. The "FHs" - as these institutions are called in short - offer the possibility to continue studies for a doctorate at university.
Naturally, having a "mass university" means a lot of investment in infrastructure and teaching personnel without gaining as much as one thought in the 1970s and - from today's point of view - one could gain with more focussed investments. So measures to resolve the problems of "mass university" are discussed in Austria regularily. But "numerus clausus", entrance exams, study fees or study loans etc., are still taboo topis in Austria.
As I wrote this text, the Austrian government - in an unexpected and surprising move - decided to introduce study fees from wintersemester 2001 onwards. The fee charged from every single student will be as high as ATS 10.000 per year, although elements of the the grant system will probably be reformed, widening the number of grant recipients to about 15% of the total number of students (according to news from September 2000). The fee will be charged at universities and a similar regulation for polytechniques is in the discussion phase.
1984 - 2000
Back to recent history for the last time.
After the end of Socialdemocrat absolute majority in 1984 the Socialdemocrats formed a coalition with the Freedom Party that had undergone fundamental change in the 1970s. In the early 1980s the liberal wing of the Freedom Party was in charge and managed to make the FPO a member of the International Liberal Union. This Socialdemocrat-Freedom Party coalition lasted until the infamous "coup d'etat" in the Freedom Party that brought Haider and the nationalist wing of his party to power. The following day the Socialdemocrats left the coalition and a new era of a Socialdemocrat lead coalition with the conservatives began that lasted for more than a decade untill 1999.
Just a political side-note here: After Haider took over the FPO, liberals - who didn't have a poltical organistation in Austria then - left the FPO one by one. And in the early 1990s the "Liberal Forum" was founded by former conservatives, socialdemocrats and FPO members (the party was positioned somewhere inbetween the conservative People's Party and the Socialdemocrats). This made way for the Freedom Party to concentrate on nationalistic and populistic policy.
The Socialdemocrat lead coalition with the conservatives had some resemblences with the old style coalition of the 1950s and 1960s which had practically divided the state into a conservative and a socialdemocrat half. The disappointment felt by a large part of the Austrian population and the feeling that nothing innovative was happening, was instrumentalized by the Freedom Party which grew from 5% to now 27% of the votes. And in 1999 the "People's Party" - fed up by not playing the lead role in the government since 1970 - took the risk of a coalition with the FPO. And that is where we stand at the moment.
2000
The new conservative led government in which the Freedom Party takes part as an equal partner reorganised the ministerial structure. The most fundamental changes were:
the merging of the Education with the Science Ministry after almost 30 years of seperation (which lead to rather positive public reactions), the merging of the Ministry of Economic Affairs with the Labour Ministry (which was heavily critisized), the creation of a Ministry of Innovation, the abolishment of the Ministries of Health and of Women's Affairs (both were merged in the Ministry of Social Security and Generations)
The actual ministerial structure looks like this at the moment (underlined are the ministries most relevant for S&T in Austria; PP stands for "People's Party"/Christian conservatives and F stands for "Freedomparty"/conservative rightwing party):
Federal Chancellery (PP); containing the vice-chancellor's Federal Ministry of Public Services and Sports (F) and the State Secretariat for Art (PP)
Ministry of Finance (F); containing a State Secretariat (PP)
Ministry of the Inerior (PP)
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (PP)
Ministry for national Defense (F)
Ministry of Education, Science and Culture (PP)
Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology (F)
Ministry for Economic Affairs and Labour (PP); containing a State Secretariat for Tourism (F)
Ministry for Agriculture and Forestry, the environment and water management (PP)
Ministry for Social Security and Generations (F), containing a State Secretariat for Health (F)
Ministry of Justice (F)
As you can see, there are 2 ministries mainly involved in S&T policy in Austria, the Ministry for Education, Science and Culture (some competences equal those of the Finnish Education Ministry) and the Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology (some competences equal those of the Finnish Ministry for Trade and Industry).
A new institution, which is supposed to consult the government on R&D matters is the "Council for Research and Technology Development" who met for the very first time in early September 2000. The 8 members of the council are supposed to meet at least 4 times a year and will be supported by a permanet secretariate. The council will advise the government and individual ministries, will conduct studies by itself or on request by the government. The members of the council are appointed by the two above mentioned ministries and are Austrian but also international researchers/research administrators from R&D institutions and enterprises. The foremost task of the council will be to give advice on the new research policy, since new funds will be allocated to research in the near future because of the government plans to push the gross domestic expenditure on R&D from appr. 1,5% to 2% in 2002 and further to 2,5% in 2005.

Administrative structure of education and S&T in Austria:
Ministry for Education, Science and Culture and
Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology
Schools (overview)
Schools are usually free of charge - although there are some private and federal (boarding) schools charging fees. Kindergarten (usually starting at age 3) is not free.
children start primary school at age 6 (English as a foreign language from 1st grade coming into effect from autumn 2000); 4 grades
at age 10 either "Hauptschule" (4 grades+1 year vocational training usually followed by 3 years of apprenticenship and vocational courses or with 4-5 years at a specialised highschool ending with a matriculation exam) or
"Gymnasium" (highschool: either 8 years or 4 years + 4-5 years specialised highschool) ending with a matriculation exam
Since school legislation can only be decided on in Parliament with a 2/3 majority, reforming the educational system in Austria is not easy at all. The debate now lasting for 3 decades is wether to introduce a common school system for all children from 6 to 14 and to abolish "Hauptschule" (the Socialdemocrats' approach) or not, the latter meaning upgrading "Hauptschule" and making the "Gymnasium" more "elitiste" (the conservative approach). Since the 2 political blocks block each other, "Hauptschule" is deteriorating constantly (less on the countryside, and more in the cities) and "Gymnasium" has become more or less the school all children attend after their primary education.

Universities/Polytechniques (overview)
Universities:
Study fees: from 2001 (winter) 10.000 ATS per year at universities, at polytechniques no fees have been introduced so far. After the matriculation exam universities stand wide open (no entrance exams etc.)
Both Finland and Austria have 20 universities - where the largest part of basic research is done - of which 8 are in each respective capitol city. Finnish universities are slightly less specialised than Austrian universities (10 multifaculty universities in Finland versus 6 multifaculty universities in Austria). Specialised universities in Austria that do not have an exact counterpart in Finland are:
Univ. for Veterinary Medicine (Vienna)
Univ. for Agricultural Sciences (Vienna)
Univ. for artistic and industrial design (located in Linz)
Catholic Theological University (privately run by the Catholic Church - the first government approved private university in Austria, located in Linz)
University for Montanistic Studies (Leoben)
"Donau Universität"/Danube University (a post-graduate university located in Krems: economics, journalism etc.)
Polytechniques:
More than 40 studyfee-free courses are available in Austria since the introduction of this type of higher education in 1994; besides having passed the matriculation exam, students are required to pass entrance exams. The final degree is a Master's degree which entitles to continue certain studies at university for a doctoral degree. The polytechniques are maintained by communities, provinces, interest groups and private organisations and are government approved ("Fachhochschulrat").
S&T in Austria (an overview)

The Ministry for Education, Science and Cultre (www.bmbwk.gv.at: broad selection on texts concerning Austrian S&T policy in English) is the coordinating entity when it comes to overall RTD policy, besides being directly responsible for university research and university teaching. The Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology (www.bmv.gv.at; English pages) on the other hand is responsible for the federal non-university research funds.
The Austrian National Assembly (Parliament) discusses all matters concerning science, research and technology during its preperation of laws, decrees, of the budget and on the occassion of the "Annual Report on the situation of Austrian Research". The actual input in the discussions in Parliament comes from the concerned ministries and in future the new "Council for Research and Technology Development" will also have a role to play.
The basic legal acts on which science, research and technology funding are based upon are:
Research Funding Act: this act sets up 2 seperate publicly funded research funds (FWF, FFF) which fund basic research (FWF) and industry-related applied research and development (FFF); the FWF budget amounts to ~900 mio ATS (450 mio FIM) yearly, cf. www.fwf.ac.at (well designed pages in English with a good overview on Austrian S&T programmes as well as on Austrian S&T expenditure)
Research Organisation Act: this act determines principles and targets in publicly funded research, research policy advice to the federal government and formalities for reports to the National Assembly
University Organisation Act: this act defines the set-up and structures of Austrian universities and their scope of autonomy
ITF (act governing the Innovation and Technology Fund): this act is an additional instrument in the field of technology funding that is being restructured with a focus on the new "Competence Centres"
The Austrian research scene is characterized by the dominant position of the universities (about 47% of "research locations" are at universities) on the one hand and on the other by the SMEs also involved in research (appr. 30% of "research locations"). Then there are a number of extra-university institutions - non-profit, public and pivate (appr. 23% of the "research locations").
Research at universities is very heterogenic which is explained by the way universities are organized and by the constitutionally guarnteed freedom of science and its teaching. It is left esentially to the members of universities themselves to define their research targets, although such targets are to a certain degree influenced and stimulated by the funding agencies (FWF, Ministry of Educartion, Science and Culture). In addition, participation in EU research projects and programmes - them being strongly influenced by the member states' science policies - is increasingly causing university researchers to set their research targets accordingly.
A good example of of clustering and pooling - otherwise dispersed - expertise and offering specialist services by universities is the IFA at Tulln (Institute for Agrobiotechnology, www.ifa-tulln.ac.at). This institute - employing 100 researchers - is run jointly by the University of Vienna, the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna and the Vienna University of Technology. It was founded in 1994 and focusses on biotechnology for agriculture by conducting interdisciplinary research in the field of agrobiotechnology with particular emphasis on environmental aspects, innovative production techniques based on renewable resources, molecular genetics, quality of food and agricultural products, waste management and ecotoxicology.
The largest extra-university research organisation for basic research in all fields is the Austrian Academy of Sciences (www.oeaw.ac.at). It has 18 institutes, 4 research departments and 34 scientific commissions. It is primarily funded by federal subsidies and employs a staff of 600. The Academy of Science is particularly engaged in international research cooperation: it is partner of international organisations such as CERN and participates in programmes of e.g. ESA, UNESCO or the EC (Framework Programme).
Federal institutions - a number of them on their way towards privatization - doing research are the "Central Institute for Metereology and Geodynamics", the "Geological Survey of Austria" - which belong in their disciplines to the oldest in Europe -the "Federal Environment Agency" and the "Institute for Public Health";more than a dozen of ministerial research institutes do research in the fields of agriculture, forestry and water resource mangement.
The state also owns shares of certain cooperative research enterprises, e.g. the "Austrian Research Centre Seibersdorf" (www.arcs.ac.at) and the "Arseneal Research" (www.arsenal.ac.at); both research centres cooperate closely with the "Joanneum Research" (www.joanneum.ac.at) which is owned by the Austrian federal province of Styria. To optimize the market position of these 3 institutions, they formed the umbrella organisation "Forschung Austria" (Research Austria, www.forschungaustria.ac.at). These 3 institutes are strongly involved in international scientific cooperation and cooperation in the Framework Programme.
The "Association of Cooperative Research Institutes of the Austrian Economy" acts as an intermediary between science and industry.
A number of other research institutions exist promoting industry related research (e.g. the Christian Doppler Society), economic reserach (e.g. WIFO - the Austrian Institute for Economic Research), the Institute for Advenced Studies, the Austrian Institute for International Politics, the Ludwig Boltzmann Society acting as an umbrella for appr. 100 smaller research institutes (medical, legal and social studies) and the International Research centre for Cultural Sciences etc.

Stimulation actions in the area of basic research (an ovierview)
Start Programme: gives 5 outstanding young scientists (max. 35 years) per year the opportunity to plan their research and put together their own teams over a long term (6 years) in a sound financial environment (1,5-2,5 mio ATS/year) - FWF
Ludwig Wittgenstein Award: gives 2 outstanding scientists (max. 50 years) per year maximum freedom and flexibility in carrying out their research (5 years total 10-20 mio ATS) - FWF
Special Research Programs: for all scientists in Austria (projects up to 10 years, total 10-15 mio ATS) to tackle complex interdisciplenary research topics - FWF
Joint Research Programs: provides funding for all scientists in Austria (projects up to 5 years, total 7 mio ATS, 5-7,5 mio FIM per year) for autonomous priority research topics, networking etc. - FWF
Graduate Programs: are designed to create centres of training for outstanding young scientists (Austria and abroad) - only in disciplines where Austria is at the forefront of scientific research; groups of internationally highly renowned scientists may apply (open ended, 10-15 working contracts for Ph.D. students are financed) - FWF
Erwin Schrödinger Fellowship: young Austrian scientists (Ph.D.s of max. 34 years) may apply for studies abroad (330.000-460.000 ATS per year, taxfree)
Erwin Schrödinger Follow-up Programme: facilitates the reintegration of Erwin-Schrödinger fellows in Austria (3 year projects, max. total 4 mio ATS) - FWF
Lise Meitner Program: this program should improve the quality and reputation of Austrian science through international contacts; foreign scientists (age limit 40) who want to do research at Austrian research institutions may apply (554.000 ATS gross per year) - FWF
Charlotte Buehler Program for Women: support for female researchers during the habilitation phase (Ph.D.s of max. 40 years, duration is 12-24 months, 500.500 ATS per year) - FWF
Hertha Firnberg Program for Women: targeting women who have completed their degrees and wish to conduct research especially in areas where women are underrepresented (up to 662.000 ATS for up to 3 years, max. age is 40 plus 3 years for every child) - FWF
Research Projects: "classical" research funding for all scientists in Austria (36 months project duration, funding according to the project) - FWF
Contributions to Publishing Costs - FWF
EURESCO: co-sponsoring of European research conferences - FWF
Key Areas of research commissioned by the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture: funding is focused on well-defined, usually interdisciplinery fields of research of great interest to the public. Reserach in this area needs stimulation with public money since neither the market nor basic research activities of universities tend to be focused on such topics. Stimulation activities that require intense cooperation between science, administration, enterprises and the public have proven to be particularly effective (Project: "Xenophobia", "Future-oriented energy and environmental technologies", "Cultural Landscape Research", "Remote Sensing for environmental monitoring") - administered directly by the ministry
Project planning costs: the preperation costs for EU framework projects may be financed - administered directly by the ministry

Stimulation of actions in the area of technological research (an overview)
"K-Plus" Competence Centres: 40% funding by the company, 60% public funding for companies who conduct research programmes of internationally competitive standing and high relevance for science and the economy (pre-competitive research often in cooperation with university); about 15 K-Plus centres will be funded for about 7 years in total
Impulse Projects: targets scientists in companies (project duration 24 months, FWF pays a postdoc salary, the company agrees to provide 25% of the grant sum for external cost for services, equipment etc.) - FWF/FFF
Contact Project Science-Industry: designed to bridge the gap between scientific knowledge and commercial success - FWF/FFF
Techgate - Vienna S&T Park: The BMVIT (Ministry for Innovation) and the city of Vienna are about to realise Austria's most important S&T project, Techgate. Techgate shall increase technology transfer from science to industry, conduct interdisciplinery research (telecommunication, transport, energy, building industry, health): It is intended that Techgate becomes a platform for scientific cooperation between Central European Accession Countries and EU member states.
So not to stress you too much with evermore information I will just say very sentences concerning Austrian international S&T cooperation:
International scientific cooperation in Austria is similar to Finland with the exception that Austria looks more at its Central European neighbours - just like Finland stresses cooperation with its Russian neighbour.
Scientific-Technological Agreements (covering travel expenses for scientific cooperation on a project by project basis) and Cultural Agreements (scholarships) are cooperation instruments on the Austrian state level
Universities and the Academy of Sciences are autonomous in their international cooperations and have various agreements with foreign partners on all levels and also the FWF cooperates with science funds worldwide
CERN, ESA, COST, EUREKA are further instruments of internationalisation of scientific research
Scholarships for students/researchers worldwide (cf. www.oead.ac.at to retrieve information in English; the ÖAD is the partner institution of Finland's CIMO)