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Science and Research

Plan your meeting surrounded by the great thinkers: Semmelweis, Billroth and Landsteiner are all part of an illustrious history that is being added to all the time. Today, Vienna is one of the leading research centers in Europe and the largest university city in the German-speaking world. A center of learning that will never lose its inquisitive nature.

Meet new spirits and the thinkers of old.

Visionary Vienna:

  • Vienna leads the way in Europe when it comes to research spending
  • The city targets investment in research and technology projects in a range of areas
  • Vienna has a long history as a scientific and medical research hub
  • Around 195,000 students study at the city's 20 universities and universities of applied sciences

Knowledge City

Vienna owes much of its attractiveness to its role as a research location and knowledge center, around 30% of all research expenditure in Austria takes place in its capital. The city targets investment in research and technology projects with a focus on IT and communications technology, life sciences, energy and the environment, mobility and construction and urban production. Vienna leads the way in Europe when it comes to research spending. A total of around 46,000 people work in research and development at 1,000 companies. With 3.66 percent of GDP spent on research, Vienna is one of the leading research regions in the EU. International groups such as Boehringer Ingelheim, Otto Bock and Siemens are all committed to Vienna. Many pioneering international R&D achievements first saw the light of day in Viennese laboratories and spin-offs.
Vienna is an internationally respected and constantly growing location for life sciences. with around 555 companies, research institutions and other organizations now working in the sector. Researchers from all over the world are investigating the biological foundations of life at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. The focus of activities at the institute, which is located at the Vienna BioCenter biotech cluster, is on the molecular causes of lifestyle diseases.

University City

With ten universities, six universities of applied sciences and four private universities, Vienna is home to 195,000 students. It is the biggest university city in the German-speaking countries – with more students than Berlin or Munich. Vienna's ratio of academics is 22.1% (2017).
Founded in 1365, the University of Vienna (Alma Mater Rudolphina Vindobonensis) is one of the oldest and largest in Europe: almost 9,800 people including 6,800 academic staff work at its 20 faculties and centers. With 178 regular study programs to choose from, it also offers the nation's widest variety of degree courses. Its focuses include data science and digital humanities, health and microbiome research, society and communications, molecular biology and cognitive neurosciences, and quantum and material science.
The Medical Faculty of the University of Vienna also has a long history. With about 8,000 students it nowadays belongs to the world's largest and most renowned medical universities. The university comprises 26 university hospitals, three clinical institutes, 12 theoretical medicine centres and numerous highly specialised laboratories. The main research areas include the Immunology Research Cluster, Cancer Research/Oncology, the Medical Neuroscience Cluster, the Cardiovascular Cluster and the Medical Imaging Cluster.
The University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna (mdw) was named the world's best music university alongside the Juilliard School in New York in the 2019 QS university ranking.
The campus of the University of Business and Economics which opened in the second district in 2013 provides a source of impetus for Vienna as a city of knowledge and complements other locations such as the Neu Marx research and technology center (currently under development), the University of Vienna campus and Siemens City.
Central European University (CEU) became the latest university to come to Vienna when it opened a campus in the city in fall 2019. With its focus on social sciences and humanities, CEU is the ideal addition to the capital's higher education landscape

Science city

Vienna has a long history of excellent scientific and medical research: Semmelweis, Billroth and Landsteiner are all part of this proud history. The traditions of the Vienna Medical School are expressed today in a focus on medical biotechnology centring on vaccinations, anti-infectives, immunology and oncology. In the 1990s, a vibrant life sciences scene began to develop in Vienna alongside the larger international corporations already located in the area. Today, Vienna is becoming one of Europe's most important locations for research in this field.