Open Calls
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Life Sciences

The Life Sciences thematic call programme launched in 2003 and is the longest running programme of the fund. The life sciences play an important role and are strongly represented in the Vienna research landscape, ranging from basic research to clinical translation. In the past two decades, the fund has run calls with various thematic focii in the Life Sciences Programme, ranging from "Chemical Biology" and "Multimodal Imaging" to "Precision Medicine" and "Public Health". Several of these topics have been highlighted multiple times. To foster interactive partnerships, a strong emphasis is generally placed on interdisciplinary and collaborative work between departments and institutes.

Contact persons: Grace Liu or Benjamin Missbach

Current calls

Precision Medicine

The Life Sciences 2024 Call “Precision Medicine” opened for submissions on 4th March 2025, the submission deadline was 6th May 2025. This call was open to researchers in Vienna who seek to conduct a cutting-edge research project (2 – 4 years) that draws upon precision medicine approaches to improve the prevention, diagnosis or treatment of a human disease.

A total of € 7.5 million has been dedicated to this call. The funding range per project is € 500,000 – € 1 million. Additional funding opportunities are available for collaborative projects between scientists in Vienna and Lower Austria. Details can be found at Joint Projects - WWTF.  Joint Projects may request a budget up to € 1.1 million.

This is a two-stage call:

  • Deadline for short proposals: 6th May 2025, 2pm
  • Deadline for full proposals (upon invitation): 7th October 2025, 2pm
  • Applicant response phase (for full proposal applicants only): 9th – 20th February 2026 (exact dates provided at the end of January) 
  • The funding decision is expected in March – April 2026

Further information can be found in the “Call Specifications” and “Submission Guideline” document below. Please do not hesitate to contact the call manager Grace Liu for more details.

Earlier calls

Synthetic Biology

The WWTF Life Sciences 2024 Call “Synthetic Biology” was open to cutting-edge projects (2 - 4 years) that draw upon the design and construction approaches of synthetic biology to further understanding of a fundamental question in biology, biomedical or clinical research.

The funding range per project was € 400,000 - € 900,00. Additional funding opportunities were made available through Joint Projects for collaborative scientists in Vienna and Lower Austria.

The call jury selected seven excellent projects for funding.

Funding volume: € 6,341,727
Number of applications: 74 short proposals, 19 full proposals
Selection procedure:  International expert panel, based on external reviews
Jury meeting: 4 December 2024
Formal decision by WWTF Board of Directors: 19 December 2024

Contact person: Grace Liu

Petra Schwille (chair) | Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry, DE

Carmen Alvarez-Lorenzo | University of Santiago de Compostela, ES

Virginia Cornish | Columbia University, US

Alberto Redaelli | Politecnico di Milano, IT

Jens Nielsen | Chalmers University of Technology, SE

Ludovic Vallier | Berlin Institute of Health at Charité, DE

Funded projects

Understanding biology with AI/ML

The WWTF Life Sciences 2023 Call “Understanding Biology with AI/ML” was open to researchers in Vienna seeking to conduct a cutting-edge research project (2 - 4 years) that addresses a question in biology, biomedicine, or clinical sciences by applying innovative artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning (ML) methods to large data sets.

The funding range per project was € 400,000 - € 800,00. Additional funding opportunities were made available through Joint Projects for collaborative scientists in Vienna and Lower Austria.

The call jury selected nine excellent projects for funding.

Funding volume: € 6, 942,548
Number of applications: 72 short proposals, 21 full proposals
Selection procedure:  International expert panel, based on external reviews
Jury meeting: 28 November 2023
Formal decision by WWTF Board of Directors: 18 December 2023

Contact person: Grace Liu

Søren Brunak (chair) | University of Copenhagen, DK

Alison Noble (co-chair) | University of Oxford, UK

Niko Beerenwinkel | ETH Zürich, CH

Massimiliano Bonomi | Institut Pasteur, FR

Anna Kreshuk | EMBL, DE

Elena Marchiori | Radboud University Nijmegen, NL

Leopold Parts Wellcome Sanger Institute, UK

Funded projects

Public Health

The Life Sciences 2022 Call “Public Health” was open to researchers at universities and non-university research institutions, who sought to conduct a cutting-edge interdisciplinary research project (2 to 4 years) addressing questions in public health by developing new innovative methods. The funding range per project was €250,000 - €550,000. In total, WWTF was able to fund 8 excellent projects.

Funding volume: € 3,953,350
Number of applications: 95 short proposals, 22 full proposals
Evaluation procedure: Selection by international expert panel, based on written reviews
Jury meeting: 22-23th of September 2022 (Hybrid)
Formal decision by WWTF Board of Directors: 4th of October 2022

Contact person: Benjamin Missbach

Frank Kee (Chair) | University of Belfast, UK
Francesca Dominici | Harvard University, US
Sonia Johnson | University College London , UK
Jakob Zinsstag |Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, CH
Martijntje Bakker | Joint Programme Initiative - HDHL, NE
Theda Borde| Alice Salomon Hochschule Berlin, DE
Milena Pavlova | Maastricht University, NE

 

 

Funded projects

The Life Sciences 2021 Call “Chemical Biology” was launched on the 29th of January 2021. This call was open to researchers and clinical scientists at universities and non-university research institutions, who sought to conduct a cutting-edge research project (2 to 4 years) at the interface of chemistry and biology. The funding range per project was €200,000 - €700,000.

Funding volume: € 5,000,560
Number of applications: 70 short proposals, 23 full proposals
Evaluation procedure: Selection by international expert panel, based on written reviews
Jury meeting: 25 - 26 November 2021 (online)
Formal decision by WWTF Board of Directors: 16 December 2021

Contact person: Grace Liu

Kathrin Lang (Chair) | ETH Zurich, CH
Oskar Fernandez-Capetillo | Karolinska Institutet, SE
Cédric Govaerts | Université libre de Bruxelles, BE
Christian Hackenberger | Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie, DE
Robbie Loewith | Université de Genève, CH
Karen Polizzi | Imperial College London, UK
Joanna Trylska | Uniwersytet Warszawski, PL

Funded projects

Precision Medicine

The “Precision Medicine” call within the WWTF Life Sciences Programme invited submissions from researchers who sought to conduct a cutting-edge research project with a major focus on precision medicine, drawing upon omics technologies and patient cohorts. Projects should be hypothesis-driven, with antipicated results leading to better diagnoses and/or prognoses of diseases, or stratified therapeutic strategies to develop novel patient-oriented approaches.

With an additional €1 million contribution from the City of Vienna, a total of €6 million was dedicated to this call. The maximum funding per project was €900,000.

For futher information, please refer to the Call Fiche below.

Funding volume: € 6,069,520
Number of applications: 82 short proposals, 24 full proposals
Evaluation procedure: Selection by international expert panel, based on written reviews
Jury meeting: 11 - 12 March 2021 (online)
Formal decision by WWTF Board of Directors: 29 March 2021

Contact person: Grace Liu

Martina Muckenthaler (Chair) | University Hospital Heidelberg, DE
Sophie Brouard | CRTI Nantes, FR
Emmanouil Dermitzakis | University of Geneva, CH
Hermann Einsele | University Hospital Würzburg, DE
Max Gassmann | University of Zurich, CH
Caroline Heckman | FIMM, FI
Colin Watts | University of Birmingham, UK

 

Funded projects

Multimodal Imaging

The project call “Multimodal Imaging” within the Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF) Life Sciences Programme invited researchers at universities and non-university research institutions in Vienna, including those moving to Vienna, who want to conduct a cutting-edge research project (2 to 4 years) in the field of multimodal bioimaging. Proposals should address an important question in the life sciences and develop novel multimodal imaging approaches and data integration methods. Proposals should bring together researchers from complementary scientific disciplines such as biology/biomedical researchers, bioimaging specialists and computational scientists to foster interactive partnerships across Vienna. In total € 4 million were dedicated to this call. The funding range per project was € 200,000 to € 700,000.

For more details please refer to the Call Fiche.

 

Funding volume: € 4,089,910
Number of applications: 55 short proposals, 20 full proposals
Awarding procedure:Selection by international expert panel based on review report by peers
Jury meeting: 25th and 26th of November 2019
Formal decision by WWTF Board of Directors: 18th of December 2019

Contact person: Grace Liu

  • Markus Sauer (Chair) | University of Würzburg, DE
  • Lucy Collinson | The Francis Crick Institute, UK
  • Theo Lasser | EPFL, CH
  • Elisa May | Universität Konstanz, DE
  • Perrine Paul-Gilloteaux | University of Nantes, FR
  • Alexander Schulz | University of Copenhagen, DK
  • Andrea Varrone | Karolinska Institute

 

 

Funded projects

Linking Research and Patients' Needs

The project call “Linking Research and Patients’ Needs” within the Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF) Life Sciences Programme invites researchers and clinical scientists at universities and non-university research institutions in Vienna, including those moving to Vienna, who want to conduct a cutting-edge research project (2 to 4 years) at the interface between basic and clinical research, building on a clear hypothesis. Proposals should bring together researchers from different scientific disciplines such as biology, medicine and related biomedical sciences to foster interactive partnerships across Vienna. In total € 6 million are dedicated to this call. The funding range per project is € 200,000 to € 800,000. For more details please refer to the Call Fiche. 

 

Funding volume: 6,261,480  €
Number of applications: 114 Short proposals, 25 Full proposals
Awarding procedure: Selection by international expert panel based on review report by peers
Jury meeting: September 3-4, 2018
Formal decision by WWTF Board of Directors: September 18, 2018

Contact person: Grace Liu

 

 

Members of the call jury: 

  • Paul Matthews (Chair) | Imperial College London, UK
  • Francesca Barone | University of Birmingham, UK
  • Søren Brunak | University of Copenhagen, DK
  • Caroline Heckman | FIMM University of Helsinki, FI
  • Richard Mellanby | University of Edinburgh, UK
  • Lars Poulsen | University of Copenhagen, DK
  • Christoph Schindler | Medizinische Hochschule Hannover, DE
  • Gudrun Rappold | Heidelberg University, DE 

Funded projects

Chemical Biology

This call targets cutting-edge research projects at the interface of chemistry and life sciences which employ innovative tools and/or techniques from the chemical sciences to address biological/medical research questions. Novel and promising combinations of expertise, which blend chemistry and biology in new ways, should be a major feature of the proposed projects.

For more information to the Call please refer to the LS17 Call fiche. 

Funding volume: 4,686,000 €

Number of applications: 77 Short proposals, 25 invited to submit a full proposal 
Awarding procedure: Selection by international expert panel based on review report by peers
Jury meeting: December 6-7, 2017
Formal decision by WWTF Board of Directors: December 12, 2017

Contact person: Grace Liu

Mitglieder der Call-Jury:

  • Markus Sauer (Chair) | University of Würzburg, DE
  • Bissan Al-Lazikani | Institute of Cancer Research, UK
  • Lise-Lotte Gundersen | University of Olso, NO
  • Christian Hackenberger | FMP Berlin, DE
  • Frank Hollmann | TU Delft, NL
  • Adrianna Ianora | Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, IT
  • Kathrin Lang | TU München, DE
  • Thomas U. Mayer | University of Konstanz, DE 
  • Krister Wennerberg | FIMM, FI

Funded projects

Precision Medicine

This call was open for cutting-edge research projects proposals on precision medicine to improve diagnoses and/or prognoses of diseases as well as stratified therapeutic strategies in humans. High quality Omics data (e.g. genomics, epigenomics, proteomics, metabolomics, microbiomics), disease- or therapeutic-oriented functional data and/or imaging data had to be integrated to answer relevant clinical questions. All projects had to be complemented by a research concept considering system medicine approaches for a better understanding of disease and therapeutic response.

Funding volume: 4,678,000 € 
Number of applications: 64 Short proposals, 21 invited to submit a full proposal 
Awarding procedure: Selection by international expert panel based on review report by peers
Jury meeting: September 15-16, 2016
Formal decision by WWTF Board of Directors: September 26, 2016

Contact person: Grace Liu

For more information see the Call Fiche

Members of the call jury:

  • Søren BRUNAK (Jury Chair) |Technical University of Denmark, DK
  • Francesca Barone | University of Birmingham, UK
  • Andrea Brand | Cambridge University, UK
  • Martina Muckenthaler | University of Heidelberg, DE
  • Christian Ottensmeier | University of Southampton, UK
  • Torben Orntoft | Aarhus University, DK
  • Matthias Schwab | Institute for Clinical Pharmacology, Stuttgart, DE

 

 

Funded projects

Innovative biological and biomedical applications of novel imaging technologies

This call was open for cutting-edge research projects proposals that supported the development of novel approaches in biological and biomedical imaging methodologies with the potential to substantially move forward the Life Sciences. Please note that while the addressed question had to be biologically or biomedically driven, the Principal Investigator did not have to come from these fields.

Funding volume: 4,407,000 € 
Number of applications: 126 short proposals, 28 invited to submit a full proposal
Awarding procedure: Selection by international expert panel based on review report by peers
Jury meeting: November 27-28, 2014
Formal decision by WWTF Board of Directors: December 9, 2014

Contact person: Grace Liu

For more information see the Call Fiche

Members of the call jury:

  • Paul MATTHEWS (Chair) | Imperial College London, UK
  • Markus SAUER (Vice Chair) | University of Würzburg, DE
  • Daniel CHOQUET | Pasteur Institute, FR
  • Karla MILLER | FMRIB, UK
  • Alison NOBLE | University of Oxford, UK
  • Xavier PENNEC | INRIA, FR
  • Maximilian REISER | Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, DE
  • Janet THORNTON | EMBL-EBI, UK
  • Paul WISEMAN | McGill University, CA

Funded projects

This project call was open for innovative, frontier research that had the potential for scientific breakthroughs but at the same time may be high-risk. Novel and promising combinations of expertise had to be a major feature of the proposed projects. This was the first call with this specific focus.

Funding volume: 5,100,000 € 
Number of applications: 123 Short proposals, 30 invited to submit a full proposal
Awarding procedure: Selection by international expert panel based on review report by peers
Jury meeting: October 14-15, 2013
Formal decision by WWTF Board of Directors: October 22, 2013

Contact person: Grace Liu

For more information please see the Call Fiche

Members of the call jury:

  • Anna Tramontano (Panel Chair) | Sapienza University, IT
  • Martin Reddington (Vice Chair) |Former scientific director HFSP, DE
  • Marco Bianchi | San Raffaele University, IT
  • Alicia El Haj | Keele University, UK
  • Nuria Galles | University of Barcelona, ES
  • Ute Krämer | University of Bochum, DE
  • Paul Lasko | McGill University, CA
  • Fred MacKintosh Vrije |Universiteit Amsterdam, NL
  • Cathie Martin | John Innes Centre, UK
  • Philippe Sansonetti | Institut Pasteur, FR

Funded projects

Proposals had to address substantial scientific research questions with the aim to advance a rigorous understanding of nutrition and its implications on humans and animals. Proposals addressing scientific research questions with clear implications on food and feed safety, security and quality were also eligible. The impact on public health and practical implications for human and animal patients and individuals at risk were an important rationale for the call.

Funding volume: 3,036,000 € 
Number of applications: 60 full proposals
Awarding procedure: Selection by international expert panel based on review report by peers
Jury meeting: October 22-23, 2012
Formal decision by WWTF Board of Directors: November 6, 2012

Contact: Grace Liu

Members of the call jury:|

  • Hannelore Daniel (Jury Chair) | Munich Technical University, DE
  • Thomas Beck | Head of Nestlé Research Lausanne, CH
  • Regina Brigelius-Flohé | University of Potsdam, DE
  • Luca Cocolin |Università degli Studi di Torino, IT
  • Chris-Carolin Schön |Munich Technical University, DE
  • Matthias Wüst | University of Bonn, DE
  • Geert Janssens |Ghent University, BE
  • Lars K. Poulsen | University of Copenhagen, DK
  • Ann Prentice | MRC Human Nutrition Research, UK
  • Wim Saris | Maastricht University, NL
  • Joachim Spranger | Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, DE

Funded projects

With this call we wanted to encourage scientific projects linking research and patients' needs. This means that the funding focus of WWTF concentrated on strengthening links between outstanding lab research and medical/clinical research. Fostering cooperation between basic scientists and clinicians was a tremendous opportunity to strengthen Vienna's life sciences cluster and to open up new avenues to develop novel patient oriented approaches. 

Funding volume: 4,930,000 € 
Number of applications: 83 full proposals
Awarding procedure: Selection by international expert panel based on review report by peers
Jury meeting: June 16-17, 2011
Formal decision by WWTF Board of Directors: June 22, 2012

For more information see the Call Fiche

Members of the call jury:

  • Andrew JT George (jury chair) | Imperial College London, UK
  • Karen Chapman | Queen’s Medical Research Institute, Edinburgh, UK
  • Cosimo De Bari | University of Aberdeen, UK
  • Liz Glass | University of Edinburgh, UK
  • Elizabeth Henske | Harvard Medical School, US
  • Regina Hodits | Wellington Partners, Munich, DE
  • Bruce Y Lee | University of Pittsburgh, US
  • Basil Lewis |Technion Israel Institute of Technology, IL
  • Harry Van Lenthe | KU Leuven, BE/ ETH Zürich, CH
  • Paul Matthews | Imperial College London / GSK, UK
  • Daniel Peeper | Netherlands Cancer Institute, NL

Funded projects

The call was open for universities and research institutions as well as individual scientists from the research fields of biology, chemistry, pharmacology, biotechnology, medicine, veterinary medicine, bioprocess engineering and related areas that strive to understand molecular mechanisms and/or develop related methods.

Funding volume: 5,500,000 € 
Number of applications: 75 full proposals
Awarding procedure: Selection by international expert panel based on review report by peers
Jury meeting: July 6-7, 2009
Formal decision by WWTF Board of Directors: July 15, 2009

For more information see the Call Fiche

Members of the call jury:

Kay Huebner (Jury Chair) | Ohio State University, US
Adriano Aguzzi | Universität Zürich, CH
Christian Betzel | Universität Hamburg, DE
Marie Ann Bogoyevitch | The University of Melbourne, AU
Alan Colman | Singapore Stem Cell Consortium
Andrew George | Imperial College London, UK
Regina Hodits | Atlas Venture, DE
Rob Kay | Cambridge University, UK
Cathie R. Martin | John Innes Centre, UK
Monika Schäfer-Korting | Freie Universität Berlin, DE
Willy Verstraete | Ghent University, BE

Funded projects

This call addressed Vienna-based research institutions that intend to hire an excellent researcher from abroad for the set-up and management of a research group in the field of quantitative methods in life sciences.

Funding volume: 1,500,000 € 
Awarding procedure: Selection by international expert panel based on review report by peers
Jury meeting: 1 December 2008
Formal decision by WWTF Board of Directors: 16 December 2008

For further information see Call Fiche

Members of the call jury:

  • Sebastian Bonhoeffer | ETH Zurich, CH
  • Vincenzo Capasso | University of Milano, IT
  • Michael Doebeli | University of British Columbia, CA
  • Manfred Milinski | Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, DE
  • Wolfgang W.Weisser | University of Jena, DE

Funded projects

With this call we wanted to encourage scientific projects linking research and patients' needs. This means that the funding focus of WWTF concentrated on strengthening links between outstanding lab research and medical/clinical research. Fostering cooperation between basic scientists and clinicians was a tremendous opportunity to strengthen Vienna's life sciences cluster and to open up new avenues to develop novel patient oriented approaches. 

Funding volume: 4,300,000 € 
Number of applications: 77 proposals
Awarding procedure: Selection by international expert panel based on review report by peers
Jury meeting: November 26-27, 2007
Formal decision by WWTF Board of Directors: December 11, 2007

Members of the call jury:

  • Fritz Bach (chairman) | Harvard Medical School, US
  • Guido Adler | University of Ulm, DE
  • Adriano Aguzzi |University Hospital of Zurich, CH
  • Alan Colman | ES Cell International Pte Ltd, Singapore
  • Simon Day | Roche Products Limited
  • Andrew J T George | Imperial College London, UK
  • Henrike Hartmann | Volkswagen Foundation
  • Regina Hodits | Atlas Venture, Munich, DE
  • Regina Hofmann-Lehmann | University of Zurich, CH
  • Giorgio Parmiani | San Raffaele Foundation Scientific Institute, IT
  • Jeffrey L. Platt | Mayo Clinic, US
  • Andrew Todd-Prokropek | University College London, UK
  • Harald zur Hausen | German Cancer Research Center Heidelberg, DE

Funded projects

The call was open for universities and research institutions as well as individual scientists from the research fields of biology, chemistry, pharmacology, biotechnology, medicine, veterinary medicine, bioprocess engineering and related areas that strive to understand molecular mechanisms and/or develop related methods.

Funding volume: 5,000,000 € 
Number of applications: 47 proposals
Awarding procedure: Selection by international expert panel based on review report by peers
Jury meeting: November 25-26, 2005
Formal decision by WWTF Board of Directors: December 16, 2005

Members of the call jury:

Adriano Aguzzi | University of Zurich, CH
Fritz Bach | Harvard Medical School, US
Alan Colman | ES Cell International Pte Ltd (ESI), SG
Uwe Hartmann | University of Saarbrücken, DE
Regina Hodits | Atlas Venture Munich, DE
Dirk Inzé | Ghent University, BE
Michal Linial | Hebrew University Jerusalem, IS
Matthias Mann | Max Planck Institute für Biochemie, DE
Hans Wigzell | Karolinska Institute, SW

 

Funded projects

The objective pursued by the Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF) with the VIENNA SCIENCE CHAIRS was to bring in and set up additional research groups that would significantly strengthen Vienna as a research location within a narrowly circumscribed field. This first call was issued under the WWTF priority heading of “Life Sciences”. The theme of the first WWTF Vienna Science Chair was bioinformatics, an area in which action was required.

Funding volume: 3.000.000 € 
Awarding procedure: Selection by international expert panel based on review report by peers
Jury meeting: 1 December 2004
Formal decision by WWTF Board of Directors: 16 December 2004

 

Members of the call jury:

  • Geoffrey Barton | University of Dundee, UK
  • Antoine de Daruvar | Université Victor Segalen Bordeaux 2, FR
  • Liisa Holm | University of Helsinki, FI
  • Michal Linial | Hebrew University Jerusalem, IS
  • Thomas Oliva | Federation of Austrian Industry, AT
  • Anna Tramontano | University of Rome "La Sapienza", IT
  • Georg Wick | Austrian Science Fund, AT

Funded projects

The first call WWTF thematic call was open for universities and research institutions as well as individual scientists from the research fields of biology, chemistry, pharmacology, biotechnology, medicine, veterinary medicine, bioprocess engineering and related areas that strive to understand molecular mechanisms and/or develop related methods.

Funding volume: 5,670,000 € 
Number of applications: 57 proposals
Awarding procedure: Selection by expert panel based on review report by peers
Jury meeting: September 29, 2003
Formal decision by WWTF Board of Directors: November 11, 2003

Funded projects

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