Around 16 billion euros, more money than ever before, will be available to Austrian universities from 2025 to 2027 through their performance agreements (LV). That is 3.9 billion euros or around 30% more than they had available three years earlier, at the time of the LV 2022 to 2024.
Reason enough for Science Minister Martin Polaschek on Monday at the joint conclusion of the successful performance agreement negotiations, to which he invited the rectors of all universities, to speak of the “highest university budget of all time”. “With this record sum, we have not only created a solid basis for the targeted and efficient further development of the universities in the next three years. It should also be understood as a clear commitment by the Federal Government to Austria being a strong and competitive location. Because university graduates are the skilled workers we need to continue driving innovation and progress in our country. That’s why every euro we invest in universities today and in the next three years is an investment in our common future,” emphasized Minister Polaschek.
“The universities are satisfied with the performance agreements because they ensure planning security in the coming years. It is tax money well invested – especially in view of the tense economic situation. Economic impulses come more strongly than ever from research, creativity and excellence, and we need well-trained university graduates in many areas – from education to the fight against climate change,” says uniko President Brigitte Hütter.
Of the approximately 16 billion euros, 14.5 billion euros will be allocated via the performance agreements for 2025 to 2027; the remaining budget funds will be used for direct allocations, for example for construction projects or additional clinical expenses in the area of medical universities. Two thirds of the “performance agreement budget” flow precisely into those two scientific areas: in which the need for skilled workers is particularly high in Austria. This particularly affects the MINT area (mathematics, computer science, natural sciences, technology) and the life sciences together with medicine. Interdisciplinarity and collaboration at the interfaces between technology/artificial intelligence and the natural sciences and medicine play a crucial role. The significant increase in the budget also serves to offset costs, such as staff and rent, which have increased in all areas in recent years.
Med-Impuls 2030: Further consistent expansion of medical study places
For this reason, “Med-Impuls 2030”, the current federal government’s largest investment program to date, will continue to be consistently implemented in medicine from 2025 to 2027. In particular, it includes the continuation of the needs-based expansion of study places in human medicine by a further hundred places in the next three years in order to actually achieve the goal of 2,000 beginner places in medicine by 2028.
Make career paths more attractive, especially for young scientists
Another central focus in the performance agreements 2025 to 2027 is making careers in science and research more attractive in order not only to attract the brightest minds to Austria’s domestic universities, but also to keep them there. That is why the performance agreements for 2025 to 2027 start where the need for action is greatest in Austria: with third-party funded postdocs at universities, i.e. young scientists who have already started their academic careers and whose employment relationships are financed through third-party funds become. It is the first step towards creating long-term, modern, future-oriented, scientific career paths in which university researchers are rewarded and recognized when they are also involved in teaching, science communication or as company founders.
Encourage spin-off start-ups through the right environment at universities
Especially in economically tense times, the innovative strength of these students and researchers at universities who are willing to start a business is particularly important. That is why the performance agreements 2025 to 2027 also encourage academic spin-offs. The goal remains to double the number of successful spin-offs from 2020 by 2030. Austria is on the right track. According to the current FTI Monitor, the number of such spin-offs has already increased from 93 to 156 between 2020 and 2022. Now 89 new exploitation spin-offs are to be added between 2025 and 2027.
In order for this to succeed, the right environment is needed at the universities, such as transparent, clear guidelines for the spin-off process, suitable exploitation structures or close cooperation between universities. Science Minister Martin Polaschek has drawn up a standardized spin-off framework with recommendations, which the universities will now implement over the next three years.
Science communication is an explicit focus in the performance agreements for the first time
It was also Minister Polaschek who, through his departmental initiative “DNAustria”, ensured that science communication is now, for the first time, an explicit focus in the performance agreements for 2025 to 2027. Because only together with the universities can we succeed in strengthening trust in science and democracy. All 23 public universities are therefore not only taking a number of their own measures over the next three years, but have also committed themselves to participating in the BMBWF’s central initiatives, for example in the Science and Democracy Ambassadors. “With 16 billion euros, the universities receive a lot of tax money. I therefore consider it to be your central responsibility to make people aware of the value of science and its important importance for our democracy in these uncertain times,” emphasizes Science Minister Polaschek.