Include the right to apply for HAW/FH in the funding guidelines for federal endowed professorships!

The federal government's endowed professorships are a funding instrument that is particularly well suited to the profile of universities of applied sciences (UAS). The previous calls for proposals were primarily aimed at involving corporate partners and strengthening application-oriented research. These objectives correspond to the research mandate of the HAW/UAS.

The latest calls for applications for endowed professorships focussed on the "green and digital transformation", an area in which HAW/FH have massively expanded and developed their research and teaching activities.

And yet the HAW/FH are excluded from submitting an application.

"In recent months, the request to include HAW/FH in the funding guidelines has been submitted to Federal Minister Gewessler several times. Discussions have taken place over many months in order to realise this long-standing request of the HAW/FH. We are now appealing to the Federal Minister to support the UASs in this matter and to grant them the right to apply for endowed professorships from the federal government," emphasises FHK President Ulrike Prommer.

The HAW/FH are celebrating their 30th anniversary this year. They are a permanent fixture in the Austrian academic landscape and the second largest higher education sector in terms of teaching and research after the public universities. With 76,000 students, 17,000 lecturers and researchers (around 1,500 of whom are professors) and 265,000 graduates, they produce around 150 dissertations, around 3,000 scientific publications and 70 high-tech start-ups and spin-offs every year, with research investment totalling around 200 million euros. If HAW/FH were included in access to the BMK's endowed professorships, the instrument would have a greater impact, as it could promote innovation and transfer even more strongly.

"All experts in the field of research emphasise that appropriate competition would be beneficial for the Austrian RTI system. And that is all we are calling for in the context of endowed professorships, namely participation in the competition for an instrument that is ideally tailored to UAS/UAS," concludes Prommer.