Austrian Academy of Sciences

Austrian Academy of Sciences
Name	Austrian Academy of Sciences
Native name	Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften
Established	1847
Headquarters	Vienna
President	Markus Müller
Members	approx. 800

Austrian Academy of Sciences

The Austrian Academy of Sciences is a learned society and research institution based in Vienna with roots in the 19th century. It supports scholarship across the humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences, fostering collaborations with institutions such as the University of Vienna, Max Planck Society, British Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Louvre Museum, and Bibliothèque nationale de France. Its work intersects with projects connected to the European Research Council, Humboldt Foundation, Wellcome Trust, National Science Foundation, and European Commission initiatives.

History

Founded in the mid-19th century during the reign of Franz Joseph I of Austria and influenced by contemporaneous bodies like the Royal Society, Académie des Sciences, and Prussian Academy of Sciences, the Academy emerged amid intellectual movements involving figures such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Alexander von Humboldt, Ernst Mach, Sigmund Freud, and Theodor Billroth. Throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries it engaged with scholars linked to the University of Vienna, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Oxford, Sorbonne University, University of Cambridge, and Eötvös Loránd University. The Academy's activities were affected by events such as the Revolutions of 1848, the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, the First World War, the Austrian Civil War, the Anschluss, the Second World War, and the postwar reconstruction period involving the Marshall Plan and the Council of Europe.

In the Cold War era the Academy maintained contacts with institutions including the Russian Academy of Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences (United States), and the Academia Sinica. Prominent members and affiliates over its history include scholars associated with the Vienna Circle, the Austrian School of Economics, the Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft, the Austrian Medical Association, and research linked to collections from the British Library, the Vatican Library, and the Austrian National Library.

Organization and governance

The Academy's governance structure comprises elected members, sections, presidium, and committees interacting with external partners such as the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research, the European Commission, the Austrian Parliament, the City of Vienna, the University of Graz, the Medical University of Vienna, and the Technical University of Vienna. Leadership roles have been held by figures comparable to presidents and secretaries from institutions like the Max Planck Society, Royal Society of Canada, French National Centre for Scientific Research, and the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst. Its internal organization includes divisions reflecting scholars affiliated with the Institute for Advanced Studies (Vienna), the Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, the Austrian Commission for UNESCO, and liaison offices connected to the European University Association, the League of European Research Universities, and the International Council for Science.

Committees oversee collaborations with entities such as the Austrian Science Fund, the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber, the Austrian Cultural Forum, the Frick Art Reference Library, the Getty Research Institute, and the Royal Geographical Society. Governance procedures reference models from the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Research institutes and centers

The Academy hosts and funds institutes and centers that collaborate with the Museum of Natural History (Vienna), Natural History Museum, London, Smithsonian Institution, Institute of Archaeology (Oxford), Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Central European University, and the Austrian Archaeological Institute. Institutes focus on topics linked to collections and archives of the Austrian State Archives, the Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv, the Kunsthistorisches Museum, the Wiener Musikverein, and the Austrian Film Museum.

Specific research units work with partners such as the Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture, the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology, the Institute for Medieval Research, the Institute for Romanian Studies, the Institute of Technology Assessment, the Institute of South-East European Studies, the Institute of Urban History, and the Institute for Space Law. Collaborative projects involve the European Space Agency, the CERN, the European Southern Observatory, the Austrian Institute of Technology, the Austrian Centre for Social Innovation, the Vienna School of International Studies, and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis.

Fieldwork and expeditions have linked the Academy to archaeological sites and institutions such as Knossos, Pompeii, Troy, Çatalhöyük, Persepolis, and museums such as the Pergamon Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Publications and journals

The Academy publishes monographs, series, and journals comparable to outputs from the Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Springer Nature, De Gruyter, Elsevier, and the Taylor & Francis Group. Periodicals and series engage scholars associated with the Journal of Austrian Studies, the Austrian History Yearbook, the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, the Philosophical Transactions, the Zeitschrift für angewandte Wissenschaft, and proceedings akin to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Editorial boards have included academics from the University of Innsbruck, University of Salzburg, Masaryk University, Charles University, University of Belgrade, and University of Zagreb.

Digital projects link to resources like the Europeana Collections, the Digital Public Library of America, the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, the Austrian National Library Digital Collections, and databases used by the International Bibliography of the Social Sciences and the Web of Science.

Awards and prizes

The Academy awards prizes and fellowships analogous to honors from the Nobel Foundation, the Feltrinelli Prize, the Wolf Prize, the Herder Prize, the Goethe Medal, the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award, and grants comparable to those from the European Research Council. It supports early-career awards similar to the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions and postdoctoral fellowships linked to programs like the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the Max Planck Society visiting fellowships. Honorary recognitions have been conferred in association with institutions such as the Austrian State Prize, the Ring of Honour of Vienna, Austrian Decoration for Science and Art, and international awards coordinated with the International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies.

Category:Learned societies