Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020

Analysis and evaluation
The evaluation team found that the “BMVIT endowed 
professorship” instrument generally has a high de-
gree of certainty of achieving its goals. Given the 
outputs and outcomes that can be recorded or iden-
tified, as well as the steps planned or initiated with 
the aim of stabilising the funded structures, it is evi-
dent that the intended effects have been achieved 
primarily by creating new structures (professorships 
with corresponding activities in research and teach-
208 See Ruhland et al. (2020).
ing as well as cooperation with companies), or the 
basis has been formed for these to be achieved.
However, the additionality of the structures creat-
ed with the aid of the funding appears to generally 
be only temporary, according to the analyses. It can 
normally be assumed that the department in ques-
tion at the funded university will not have increased 
in size by the end of the funding period, but rather 
that the university budget will be shifted. A perma-
nent increase in size can only be achieved through 
third-party funding. This means that the impact of 
the instrument is felt much more deeply as a struc-
tural change (frequently in association with techno-
logical change). The sustainable establishment of 
additional structures achieved directly through the 
funding could only be achieved if this were to be 
used as an instrument for developing entire special-
ist departments, university institutes, etc. through 
the combination of multiple endowed professorships. 
However, the current use of the “BMVIT endowed 
professorships” is based around individual cases as 
needed. In this respect, the lack of additionality can 
be attributed to the current use of the instrument; 
the instrument itself could certainly achieve this 
type of effect under modified conditions (e.g. higher 
funding and the tender/awarding of contracts as a 
concerted activity, e.g. involving different donors or 
sponsors).
The condition that the universities appoint the en-
dowed professors in accordance with Section 98 of 
the Universities Act (UG) was recognised as a key 
success factor for funding. This requires the profes-
sorships to be embedded in the development plans 
which, together with the lack of a transitional period 
after the end of the funding/endowment period (e.g. 
if following an appointment in accordance with Sec-
tion 99 of the Universities Act (UG), a new invitation 
to tender for a university professorship would be re-
quired in accordance with Section 98 of the Universi-
ties Act (UG) for a continuation at the end of the 
endowment period) and planning security for the uni-

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