Life Science Report Vienna 2011

Page 16

Academia

16

The Life Sciences in Vienna: Spotlight on Research and Teaching A brochure on the life sciences in Vienna would be incomplete without considering research activities which go beyond the business side. In fact, commercial activities in the life sciences are often based on outstanding academic research. LISAvienna asked 22 institutions active in the life sciences to participate in a survey* to gather up-to-date statistics on life science research activities in Vienna. Because commercial activities in biotech and medtech are linked to many different disciplines such as agriculture, biology, chemistry, engineering, material sciences, medicine, pharmaceutics and veterinary medicine, a very broad and extended life science definition has been applied for the set-up of the sample. The bandwidth of the institutes’ landscape is particularly large. It includes classical academic education at the University of Vienna as well as training in specialist disciplines in basic and applied research facilities. This extensive scientific range traditionally attracts a large number of national and international private companies that support research with large amounts of external funding or even completely self-financed institutions. Numerous innovations owe their existence to this proximity between research and industry. Short profiles of the 22 organizations that contrib-

uted their data are included in this report (see p. 18). Key Figures at a Glance Vienna is home to seven universities, ten non-profit research institutes and five other organizations performing noteworthy research and teaching activities in the life sciences. By the end of 2010, these institutions employed roughly 14,100 people in the life sciences (n = 21), 52 % of them were women (n = 20). With more than 35,000 students in the life sciences alone, Vienna educates more young scientists than any other city in Austria. 5,182 life science papers were published in peer-reviewed journals by researchers based in the organizations included in the sample (n = 20). Furthermore, 45 (n = 18) life science patents were filed last year. In 2010, the total life science budget of the organizations amounted to 699 million euros (n = 16), of this amount 194 million euros (n = 19) came from thirdparty funding. Long Traditions and Cutting-edge Research Vienna owes its success as one of the most important life science centers in Europe today to its long tradition

in scientific and medical research. Names such as Semmelweis, Billroth and Landsteiner have all taken their place in the annals of the city’s history. The University of Vienna, founded in 1365, is Austria‘s largest university. The Medical University of Vienna was originally founded in 1365 as a Medical Faculty of the University of Vienna. Since 2004 the Med­ Uni Vienna is an autonomous university. The University of Veterinary Medicine was founded in 1765 by Empress Maria Theresa as the first veterinary medicine educational establishment in the German-speaking world. In 1815, the Vienna University of Technology was established and in 1872 the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences was founded. Since the 1990s the institutional landscape has diversified immensely. Nowadays cutting-edge research is not only performed in well-established universities but also in research institutions such as the Max F. Perutz Laboratories, the Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) or institutes operated by the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) like the Center of Molecular Medicine (CeMM), the Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular * Detailed information on the methodology can be found at www.LISAvienna.at

Table 2

Academic Institutions – Facts & Figures I Number of research institutions active in life science covered by the report ������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 22 Universities �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 5 Applied universities ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 2 Non-profit research institutes ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������10 Other ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 5 Patent applications in the life sciences in 2010 (n = 18) ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 45 Total life science budget in 2010 (n = 16) ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� EUR 698.44 M Third-party funds spent on life science research in 2010 (n = 19) �����������������������������������������������������������������������������EUR 194.10 M


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