University of Excellence - fteval

for the UoE still only account for a tiny fraction of this additional funding: a rough estimate
shows that we are talking about 3 - 5% of the accumulated additional public sector funds.
What is more, the costs for the UoE would be jointly borne by several private and public
sector actors. From the perspective of the feasibility study, the future scenario cannot
entail keeping other universities short of funds. We argue that: (i) More money must be
invested in the university system as a whole. (ii) The UoE helps promote an upward
quality spiral and a stronger development of thematic foci. (iii) Of course, should it turn
out to be a zero-sum game after all, the study recommends that the City of Vienna should
not give this initiative priority support.
Finally, a UoE would support the achievement of several principal objectives of Austria's
science, research and technology policy:
• Improvement and stronger programme orientation of PhD degrees,
• Enhancement of Austria's attractiveness for young talents and experienced scientists
from all over the world,
• Creation of critical masses and (European) centres of excellence,
• Enhancement of the capability to open up new interdisciplinary fields of research,
• Improvement of the patentability and exploitation of basic research findings,
• Better communication of science as part of our culture and as a prosperity multiplier,
• Contribution to increasing the percentage of GDP spent on research,
• Contribution to helping achieve European targets (Lisbon, Barcelona, Bologna),
• "Oiling the works“, contribution to the further development of the entire system.
B – Proposed structure
The following sections describe the attributes deemed by the feasibility study to be of
central importance for the "University of Excellence“ in the event the project is
implemented. To bring the matter to a point: opinions may differ as to whether an
institution of this kind should be established. However, should the political will to
implement the project exist, from the point of view of the study there are few alternatives
to the model proposed here. For this reason the indicative mood has deliberately been
used in the following.
Order of magnitude
1. The start-up phase should proceed swiftly in order to have approx. 20 groups of
scientists (senior and junior) in place after a few years and approx. 30 after ten years.
A group is expected to comprise around 4 – 15 staff funded from UoE budget and
third-party resources. In addition, there will also be staff who are not assigned to a
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