Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020

Results of the evaluation
The evaluators note that the number of professors 
has risen steadily by around five per year in recent 
years, with persistent success in funding applica-
tions. For example, 47% of all funding applications 
submitted to the European Research Council (ERC) 
were accepted, which is the highest success rate 
among all institutions of the European Union and the 
states associated to Horizon 2020. The Nature Index 
Ranking 2019, which measures both the quantity as 
well as the quality of publications and therefore also 
takes smaller institutions into account, also ranks IST 
Austria in third place globally. This is the best rank-
ing for a European institution. Together with the suc-
cessful statistics related to the ERC, this ranking is a 
very good indicator of the excellence achieved by IST 
Austria. 

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204
Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020
The evaluation committee gave a positive as-
sessment of the recruitment strategy – both for as-
sistant professors and for professors with tenure – 
which is based on excellence and not any specific 
topic (person before topic). The search for top tal-
ent should in future be accompanied by a strategy 
for building up strengths in carefully considered ar-
eas. This is important in order to provide a good 
working environment for all professors and to guar-
antee adequate diversity so that all main scientific 
fields are covered for students. The recruitment 
strategy should also aim to increase the number of 
female professors, particularly in the fields of math-
ematics, physics and computer science.
In addition to the quality of the professors, any 
attempts to establish an excellent institute also 
crucially depend on the quality of the students. The 
evaluation acknowledged IST Austria’s efforts to at-
tract highly qualified students from all over the 
world. It finds that the students are generally very 
satisfied with their education. The organisation and 
management of the Graduate School are consid-
ered to be highly successful and efficient.
As an integral part of IST Austria, the Graduate 
School is limited in law to awarding PhD degrees. 
Combined master’s degrees/PhD programmes are 
already standard at top institutions internationally. 
Students who are accepted onto a PhD programme 
can also acquire a master’s degree on their way to-
wards their PhD. The evaluation committee conclud-
ed that the fact that IST Austria cannot offer com-
bined master’s degrees/PhD programmes puts the 
Institute at a disadvantage compared with universi-
ties, as many bachelor’s students would prefer to 
graduate from an institution that also awards mas-
ter’s degrees. IST Austria should therefore also be 
given this same opportunity. This would accordingly 
increase the competitiveness of IST Austria by at-
tracting more promising young students as a result.
Furthermore, the evaluation panel gave an excel-
lent assessment on the diversity and quality of the 
scientific infrastructure in the fields of biology, 
physics, chemistry and computing. The various ser-
vice facilities are well equipped, financed and man-
aged.
The financial resources of the Institute were con-
sidered to be in a positive state by the evaluation 
panel. The evaluation panel was critical of the 
strong dependence on the European Research 
Council, where the IST Austria is particularly suc-
cessful in obtaining ERC grants. Greater diversifica-
tion is recommended therefore when it comes to 
third-party funding and other funding sources.
The evaluation welcomed the establishment of 
the subsidiary TWIST aimed at developing spin-offs. 
The international experts also believe that estab-
lishing an industrial technology park that accommo-
dates start-ups as well as other laboratories and 
companies that can benefit from the scientific ex-
pertise of IST Austria, leading to a fruitful, mutual 
knowledge and technology transfer is a sensible 
idea. 
The future Visitor Center will help to intensify 
contact and exchanges with the general public and 
the local environment, including in particular chil-
dren.
The evaluation committee considers further 
growth towards 150 research groups by 2036 to be 
a reasonable prospect. The experts believe that the 
additional planned construction measures are re-
quired in order to be able to implement the plans 
for infrastructure and staff expansions. A new ten-
year funding commitment should be in place by 
2020 or 2021 in order to allow for timely planning of 
the new infrastructure.
The decision was taken to establish three re-
search areas since the growth of the Institute re-
quires certain adjustments to be made to the cur-
rent management structures. This arises from the 
fact that the governing board will not be able to 
continue tracking the development of the careers of 
all researchers in the long term if this growth con-
tinues. The evaluation committee concludes that 
together with the staff, the management of IST 
Austria will keep the Institute on the right track.

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