Research Forum 2021: “Shaping the future responsibly!”

The Research Forum 2021 under the motto "Shaping the future responsibly" took place online due to the coronavirus pandemic.

From April 7 to 8, the program included exciting panels on sustainability as well as a keynote by Wolfgang Lutz, a policy panel and a science slam.

Karin Bauer (daily newspaper "Der Standard") moderated the politics panel with Federal Minister Heinz Faßmann, Federal Minister Leonore Gewessler and FHK President Raimund Ribitsch.

Roswitha Enzelberger won the Science Slam with her rousing presentation "Candy Bar Drive-In".

On April 7 and 8, 2021, the 14^th Research Forum of Austrian Universities of Applied Sciences took place. The program of the conference organized by FHWien der WKW included inspiring panels, stimulating discussions and interesting poster presentations on sustainability.

After the words of welcome by Raimund Ribitsch (President of the Austrian Association of Universities of Applied Sciences), Michael Heritsch (CEO, FHWien der WKW) and Uta Russmann (Head of Program Committee, FHWien der WKW), Wolfgang Lutz, Director of the Institute for Demography at the University of Vienna, kicked off the first day of the Research Forum 2021 with his exciting keynote on “The Importance of Education for Health and Sustainable Development”. Exciting panels, discussions and a lively exchange between researchers followed. In the evening, the Science Slam offered a worthy conclusion to the first conference day. Slammer Roswitha Enzelberger convinced the audience with her rousing presentation “Candy Bar Drive-In” and won the Science Slam.

The second day started with an interesting politics panel. Moderated by Karin Bauer from the Austrian daily newspaper “Der Standard”, Minister Heinz Faßmann, Minister Leonore Gewessler and FHK President Raimund Ribitsch spoke about the funding of universities of applied sciences and research institutions, valuable synergies as well as challenges and solutions for the future. This was followed by other interesting panels and presentations on the topic of “Research in Excellence Programs“. The final event was the handover of the flag from FHWien der WKW to FH Kärnten, which will host the FFH 2022.

At this point we would like to thank all participating researchers, lecturers and participants for their contributions to a successful and inspiring Research Forum 2021.

Further information about the Research Forum 2021 can be found here:

• Press release by the Austrian Association of Universities of Applied Sciences (in German)
• Press release by FHWien der WKW

The panels were recorded. All registered participants can view the videos on the conference platform:

• Conference platform FFH 2021