“Disruptive Innovation – Early Career Seed Money” Funding Programme – Austria

It is financed by the Zukunft Österreich fund (FZÖ). Funding will be interdisciplinary and across thematic areas, with seed money being made available as flexible grants that may be used freely. Low-threshold application and an unconventional selection procedure are aimed to help radically new ideas achieve a breakthrough.

Funding Goals

• Social progress thrives on scientific and academic breakthroughs. Disruptive innovation, i.e. completely innovative ideas, approaches or experiments which can hardly be integrated into the scientific or social environment at the time they develop, typically stand at the beginning of such breakthroughs, often undertaken by young, outstanding, creative and productive scientists at an early stage of their careers.
• The significance of disruptive ideas often becomes evident only after several years or decades; in identifying and supporting such ideas traditional funding tools have limits. New disruptive ideas and approaches may also arise from transfer of new technologies or know-how from abroad to existing research fields and are thus eligible for funding under this programme.

Funding Period and Funding Amount

• 1 to 12 months
• €25,000 to €75,000
• The principal investigator’s own salary can only be financed for up to 6 months.

Target Group

• The target group is outstanding young researchers not more than three years after their doctoral degree, whose projects suggest extraordinary potential of disruptive innovation.
• There is complete disciplinary and thematic freedom. Projects from all scientific disciplines in the field of basic research are eligible for funding. In particular, interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary research approaches and artistic-scientific approaches are invited to submit proposals (however, this kind of approaches are no prerequisite for an application).

Requirements

• Applications must be submitted individually (in personam by the researcher managing the project).
• Only one application may be filed per person.
• Exclusion of multiple funding: no funding must have been granted for the proposed project earlier. Applications with other funding agencies must be disclosed. Approvals by another funding agency must be notified immediately and will lead to exclusion of the application from the procedure.
• The following are eligible for funding:
  • scientists who completed their doctoral studies1 not more than 36 months ago (calculated from their doctoral viva voce (Rigorosum), cut-off date: 31 October 2023).
  • and are affiliated with a research institution in Austria.
• Upon submission of the application, applicants must present approval from the research institute at which the project is intended to be carried out (declaration of consent). In the case of a change in the course of the process, approval from the new research institution must be evidenced by presentation of a declaration of consent.
• The applicants are prepared to pro-actively contribute to the public presentation of the programme and to attend related events.

For more information, visit Austrian Science Fund (FWF).