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Zero Emissions Award

Description

The Zero Emissions Award is Austria’s largest privately funded research award for climate-relevant basic research, funded through a donation to the FWF’s alpha+ Foundation. It supports pioneering research projects in renewable energy and the energy transition, aiming to generate knowledge necessary for achieving climate neutrality in Austria by 2040.

The programme is open to all scientific disciplines, provided the research contributes to the energy transition.

Funding Amount

  • Total funding available:
    • €4.5 million (2023–2027/2028)
  • Annual funding:
    • Approx. €900,000 per year
  • Funding per project:
    • Not fixed; depends on project and programme
    • If project budget exceeds annual foundation allocation, FWF may cover the difference
  • Funding duration:
    • Programme-dependent (e.g. PI Projects or ESPRIT rules apply)
  • Additional financial conditions:
    • Increased budget:
      • +15% general costs (PI Projects)
      • +10% budget (ESPRIT)

Submission Deadlines

  • Rolling submissions (no fixed deadline)
  • Applications can be submitted throughout the year, with periodic decision rounds

Submission Conditions

  • Applications must be submitted via the FWF elane electronic portal
  • Must comply with:
    • Principal Investigator Projects guidelines or
    • ESPRIT programme guidelines
  • Additional requirements:
    • Submission of an additional form demonstrating relevance to the call topic
    • Compliance with Supplementary Application Guidelines (PDF)
  • Evaluation:
    • Based on international peer review procedures
    • Final decision by the alpha+ Foundation based on FWF Scientific Board recommendation

Eligible Types of Organisations

  • Universities
  • Non-university research institutions

Expected Outcome

The programme aims to:

  • Generate new knowledge for the energy transition
  • Support innovative and groundbreaking research approaches
  • Contribute to climate neutrality goals
  • Enable scientific innovation and societal impact in sustainability

Scope

The call supports basic research projects addressing the energy transition, particularly in the following areas:

  • Pioneering / excellent basic research across disciplines for renewable energy innovation
  • Technological framework conditions for large-scale implementation of the energy transition
  • Behavioural research related to the use of renewable energy

Projects must:

  • Be climate-relevant
  • Contribute to closing knowledge gaps or developing new approaches in energy transition research

Applications must be submitted under:

  • Principal Investigator Projects
  • ESPRIT programme

Partner Requests

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