Austria Should Invest In Brains, Not In Bricks, Banks Or Airlines

摘要

Because of uncertainty about this year's science budget, as expressed in your News in Brief story 'Austrian scientists rattled by threat to funding' (Nature 457,648; 2009), the Austrian science fund FWF has postponed its first two board meetings of 2009. It has frozen all decisions on already-reviewed grant applications until May 2009. As the FWF is by far the most significant public agency supporting basic research in Austria, any reduction of its moderate budget would be a devastating blow.rnThis uncertainty puts the Austrian government's recent efforts to advance science, and to attract internationally renowned scientists, into serious jeopardy. Because the basic subsidy for universities is low, scientists have been relying heavily on competitive funding from the FWF.