Research at the University of Graz

The University of Graz regards itself as a university of Natural Sciences, Cultural Sciences, as well as Social Sciences and Economics, which ensures a corresponding positioning at the location, together with the other educational institutions, i. e. the three universities in Graz.

We pursue basic research and applied research in consideration of the social needs. In doing so, we enable a plurality of topics and methods. We promote high quality research. We establish research core areas in main areas of the various research disciplines. We anchor our research in the international research community, whereas the European Research Area is taken into particular consideration. We integrate students in research processes in terms of research-related teaching. We make our knowledge as well as our research results available to society.

A process of quality assurance and promotion of first-rate research is going to be established through specific support of human resources and infrastructure. This framework is to support promising research within the main research areas as well as competing research approaches. The facilities of our university are going to develop an achievement profile as a basis for inter- and trans-disciplinary knowledge exchange and for inter-institutional and international research co-operations.

The promotion of young researchers is going to be improved through specific support. The personnel structure is going to be established according to the tasks in a needs-oriented and performance-related way, in order to enable university careers of young researchers.  The intensity of knowledge transfer as well as the quality of research co-operations with non-university partners are specifically supported. Founding companies in cooperation with the university are fostered.

Research Core Areas

The University of Graz pursues the strategy of optimizing its potential through co-operations with other universities at the location, and to make use of synergies established by the concentration of resources and competences. It is the aim to reach a „critical mass“ in the common research areas, especially together with the Technical University and the Medical University.

The inter-university NAWI Graz co-operation, which is already established, as well as the BIOTECHMED co-operation, which is now being established, are of enormous importance for the research location Graz.

Modeling and Simulation

Particularly in theory-oriented research areas, (mathematic) modeling and computer simulations are playing an increasingly important role. It is only possible to make quantitative statements about complex issues with sufficiently detailed models. The recent rapid development in computer technology allows in the meantime to analyse complex models numerically.  An important aspect in this context is the fact that powerful computers allow handling entirely new classes of models which have been previously not available to traditional mathematical approaches. Several research groups from different disciplines at the University of Graz, the Technical University, and the Medical University Graz, have specialized in areas of modeling and simulation for the past few years. This specialization is clearly reflected by the number of proposed and approved grants on an international and national level. At the University of Graz, the research core area ``Modeling and Simulation'' consists of 18 working groups from 15 departments or centers located at three schools.  It aims at strengthening or creating cooperations in between the groups  as well as substantiating further the groups' research profiles.

Molecular Enzymology and Physiolgoy

The Molecular Biosciences in the area of Enzymology and Physiology play a prominent role within the project „NAWI Graz“. The scientific excellence in this research area is proven through relevant publications, the administration of several major research networks, as well as the successful acquisition of numerous national and European third-party funds. In the past five years more than 200 articles have been published in top journals (Science, Nature, Molecular Cell, and Cell Metabolism).  Researchers in the areas of Molecular Enzymology and Physiology coordinate internationally attractive major research projects and graduate programs, such as the SFB-LIPOTOX, the GEN-AU Project GOLD, and the doctoral program Molecular Enzymology. In addition, many researchers participate in research networks, such as NFN AGING, the Kplus Center Applied Biocatalysis and EU projects in the 6th and 7th Framework Program. The establishment of a new, highly modern Center for Molecular Biosciences (ZMB), the new appointments and reorientation in the area of plant physiology, as well as further planned appointments illustrate the sustainable support of the molecular biosciences at the University of Graz. Establishing the research core area Molecular Enzymology and Physiology is the systematic development of this successful research branch.

Brain and Behavior

This research area promises a deeper understanding of how the brain works, and of the underlying mechanisms of behavior. The University of Graz, as well as the Medical University and the Technical University, work in the research core areas of Neuroscience and/or Brain Research and have acquired considerable competences and international recognition in various areas in recent years. Through a concentration of the activities at the three universities, a unique effect of synergy is being achieved. With an integrated research profile in the behavioral and neurosciences, the faculty research focus "Brain and Behavior" contributes to the collaboration of successful research teams and to a more efficient use of different methods of psychology and biology. By this it provides optimal points of contact, and is likely to contribute to the planned inter-university cooperation BIOTECHMED in a substantial way.

Environment and Global Change

The research core area„Environment and Global Change“ concentrates on the analysis and monitoring of climate and environmental change at the global and regional level, considering regional and local impacts; the analysis of the role of human beings as contributors, affected parties, and co-designers of this change; and the identification of transition paths towards sustainable regional development and innovation. Austria is the primary regional focus embedded in European and globally oriented research. Groups from climate- and environmental physics, meteorology, environmental chemistry, hydrogeology, environmental biology, environmental economics and sociology, geography and regional research, systems sciences and sustainability research, environmental ethics and environmental law, collaborate together and coordinate their research towards this common vision. At the University of Graz the structural requirements for the research cluster “Environment and Global Change” have already been established: In 2007, the Faculty of Environmental and Regional Sciences and Education was founded, and the Wegener Center for Climate and Global Change became part of it. In the next few years this research field is to be further extended in its interdisciplinary focus, such as to pool the university’s competences in the research area of “Climate, Environmental and Global Change, Regional change and sustainability”.

Within four Joint Research Foci

• GlobEOS (Global Earth Observation and Stewardship in Climate and Environmental Change)
• RegIMOS (Regional Integrated Modeling and Studies in Climate and Environmental Change)
• GreenPROTEC (Processes and Technologies for Coping with Climate and Environmental Change)
• RegiKNOWS (Regional Changes Research and Knowledge Transfer for Sustainability)

to date 23 research groups cooperate at the research location Graz, currently originating from the Uni Graz schools of Environmental and Regional Sciences and Education, Natural Sciences, Social and Economic Sciences, and Arts and Humanities, as well as from the Inter-University Research Centre for Technology, Work and Culture.

University research areas allow a pooling of the university’s strong research fields. Thus, a close cooperation, i. e. between the Humanities, Social Sciences and Cultural Sciences, is supported. The University of Graz strives to combine existing faculty and disciplinary main research areas with high social relevance in university research areas. The activities up to now show a great potential in the following three topic areas:

Heterogeneity and Cohesion

This research core area deals with socio-cultural phenomena, causes and effects of continuing social differentiation, and the question of shaping social order according to these basic conditions. Highly differentiated, modern societies are characterized by an increasing fragmentation and individualization of living conditions, which makes the difficulty of social cohesion including its ethic, legal, and socio-political aspects especially virulent. Besides the analysis of migration processes, phenomena of ethnic-cultural diversity, the change of gender relations and generational relations, new/old social inequalities and their accompanying conflicts, studies of the socio-theoretical, institutional, ideological and religious foundations of social integration are all part of the agenda of this research core area. In addition, a perspective of international and historical comparison is to be taken.

The cultural history of Europe and its historical and current understanding.

This research core area pools research which is concerned with the specific culturality of Europe (in its widest sense) as a manifestation of difference to non-European cultures, but also, for example, in dealing with globalization. The central focus is the implicit as well as explicit question forthe claim of European identity in history, the aesthetic expression of a European quality in works of art and literature, the relation between norm and religion concerning the idea of Europe in history, as well as the history of science and scholarship in Europe. An essential factor for such investigations is not only obtaining material results, but also the continual reflection of the relation of actual findings to the corresponding era-typical discursive interpretations of Europe and its specific culture up to the present. The analysis of the South-East European area constitutes a particular focus in this context.

Learning - Education – Knowledge

The exponential increase of information available worldwide, on the one hand, and the increasing influence of the job market on education politics, on the other hand, raise the questions of significance and function of learning and education in plural knowledge-based societies. The research core area “Learning – Education – Knowledge” faces the challenges connected with this, and deals with the questioning of synthesized knowledge as well as the orientating and normative function of education.

This research core area starts at the levels of contexts, subjects and objects of learning and education and uses the potential of interdisciplinary co-operation:

1. On the level of contexts, the changes of conditions of learning and education, which are caused by the social, economic and technical changes, are explored. Moreover, the concept of education, the distinctions between different educational systems and institutions, as well as the variety of learning places are analyzed.

2. The subject level ranges from learning and brain research, early childhood pedagogy, learning at school and university, extra-occupational learning, life-accompanying learning , intercultural learning and the individualization of learning processes to the question of necessity of required competences now and in the future.

3. On the object level, thematic fields such as changes of forms of knowledge, ways of knowledge transfer and possibilities of using and implementing knowledge are dealt with.