The Austrian Science Fund Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forshung (FWF) is Austria's central body for the promotion of basic research. It is equally committed to all fields of science and the humanities and in all its activities is guided solely by the standards of the international scientific community. The FWF's corporate policy is to strengthen science and the humanities in Austria by funding high-quality scientific research, by supporting education and training through research and by fostering knowledge transfer and a science-friendly culture by means of an exchange between science and other areas of society. The aims of the FWF are the continued improvement of science in Austria and an increase of its international competitiveness, an enhancement of the qualifications of young scientists and a strengthening of the awareness that science represents a significant aspect of our culture.

The FWF was funded by the Austrian government in1968 as an independent and autonomous body for the support and the promotion of basic research in Austria. All decision making bodies of the FWF are comprised almost exclusively of full professors at Austrian universities; representatives from the government have observer status.

In 2004, the FWF’s total budget amounts to approximately 96 million €. Of this, about 60% is provided by the government. About 70% of the FWF’s budget is spent on research grants to individual scientists, who are usually funded for three years, and about 20% on research networks, with the rest allocated mainly to mobility fellowships (for Austrian researchers to study abroad and for scientists from abroad to work in Austria) and to the promotion of women (special support programmes). Additionally, the FWF administers programmes for outstanding researchers on behalf of the Ministry of Science. All of the FWF’s funding categories presently operate in a bottom-up manner and all proposals are subjected to an international peer review process. Final reports from projects are also reviewed.

Biodiversity and related research
The funding of projects in the field of biodiversity falls within the scope of the Division of Biology and Medicine. In 2003, the FWF granted six new projects in the field of biodiversity with a total budget of approx. 960,000 €. The total number of biodiversity research projects administered by the FWF at the present date is 25.