Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020

Table 4-1: Areas of conflict within the ACRP due to the dual objectives
Objective: Research competencies
Objective: Bases for decision-making in practice
Primary target 
group
International scientific community
Stakeholders from practice working on practical 
applications, primarily in politics & administration, 
national and regional
Expectation
Sound scientific findings as a basis for further 
research; practical applicability is of secondary 
importance
Answers that are easy to understand and results that 
can be applied in specific cases focusing on topics that 
are relevant in Austria
Preferred working 
method
(Inter)disciplinary, international cooperation
Transdisciplinary, at least some consultation with 
partners working on practical applications
Preferred forms of 
publication
Scientific journals, conferences, ACRP research 
reports 
Dominant language: Technical English
Briefings, expert reports, manuals 
Dominant language: German
Dominant 
requirement
Innovative research
Research that fills gaps in knowledge
Predominant 
research logic
Scholarly research
Research for other researchers in accordance with 
the logic of the scientific system
Departmental research
Research for practice targeted at knowledge that 
can be put into practice; researchers in an advisory 
capacity
Source: Tiefenthaler and Ohler (2019).

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Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020
research cannot solve the problems associated with 
climate change, it can provide the knowledge re-
quired in this regard. In addition to requiring funda-
mental research, this also in particular requires prac-
tical research in the interests of the ACRP’s dual ob-
jective. The evaluators’ recommendation therefore is 
to decisively strengthen, expand and develop the 
ACRP even further. Increasing the budget is recom-
mended in particular. The objectives should continue 
to apply, with the competence goal expanded to in-
clude the maintenance and further development of 
those items already achieved, establishing expertise 
on research issues that have been less represented 
in the programme to date, as well as establishing de-
mand and research expertise among stakeholders 
working on practical applications. The range of in-
struments available should be expanded and differ-
entiated for this in order to enable transdisciplinary 
work and co-creation processes even more effective-
ly and to promote partnerships with stakeholders 
working on practical applications. Governance and 
selection procedures should be developed further in 
such a way that the application orientation is high-
lighted more strongly without compromising the re-
search quality. Intensifying communication is also 
recommended for the purposes of promoting the use 
of research results.