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Introduction
Current institution
Additional affiliations
February 2015 - December 2021
Position
- Senior Researcher
Description
- Head of Strategy and Scientific Services
September 2006 - January 2010
Publications
Publications (60)
In the last two years, the topic of science and democracy skepticism has become a focus of political and media debate, especially because of the experiences during the COVID- 19-pandemic and the media reception of the Eurobarometer survey 516 from 2021. Topics addressed in this debate included, for example, questioning the democratic legitimacy of...
(Language: German) This prize-winning essay takes the COVID-19 pandemic to explore the boundaries between science and politics: What works and what doesn't? Can politics and science talk to each other, and if yes, what preconditions and structures have to be in place to organise a fruitful interaction?
Die gegenwärtige Periode ist für die meisten von uns der größte Einschnitt, mit dem wir in unserem gesellschaftlichen Zusammenleben bisher konfrontiert worden sind. Ein ziemlich gefährliches und ziemlich ansteckendes Virus hat in kürzester Zeit Gewissheiten ausgehebelt, Staaten, Organisationen, Individuen und globale Interaktionen vor größte Heraus...
Call for Papers: Serendipities.
Welcome to the relaunch of Serendipities – Journal for the Sociology and History of the Social Sciences. As of December 2020, the journal is hosted by the Royal Danish Library (https://tidsskrift.dk/Serendipities). To mark our move to a new host and the reconfiguration of the editorial team, we welcome contributions...
With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Austria, a new forum emerged: the "Future Operations Clearing Board" aims at facilitating exchange between scientific knowledge and policy-making. The article reports some key observations from this still nascent forum, and attempts to situate it in the Austrian context.
Open Access is a simple idea that has resulted in a confusing landscape of business models, competing policy prescriptions, and vested interests. Academic debates about the pros and cons of Open Access publishing often lack insights into the operational needs for setting up an Open Access publication. This is true particularly for the social scienc...
In the early 1960s, the higher education sector in Austria was in a deep crisis. Intellectuals of all colors debated intensely about the reason for this, and also what purpose higher education was to fulfill. But where did the perception of crisis come from?What happened to universities and other institutions of higher education in the years betwee...
DE: Eine zentrale Aufgabe öffentlicher Verwaltung besteht darin, Datenbestände anzulegen – zur Erfüllung ihrer ureigensten Aufgaben, aber auch zur Nutzung durch andere. Diese Datenbestände dienen als Entscheidungsgrundlage, zur Planung, Dokumentation, Kontrolle und Evaluierung. So entstehen Register: von der Todesursachenstatistik über die Sozialve...
Book Review of Jerry Z. Muller The Tyranny of Metrics, 2018: Princeton University Press und Yves Gingras, Bibliometrics and Research Evaluation, 2016: MIT Press
The ERC has been a pivotal innovation in the set of funding instruments that the European Commission has established for fostering research and innovation in the European Union. With more than 8000 projects funded so far, it is worth asking about empirical evidence regarding the ERC’s specific impact on the social sciences. This article provides so...
For over nine years, Heinrich Drimmel served as minister for education, becoming one of the most influential conservative politicians of the early Second Republic during his tenure. While the minister was responsible for many policy fields, higher education was particularly close to Drimmel's heart. Yet today his reign is mostly interpreted as a pe...
Founded in 2007 to fund basic research, the European Research Council (ERC) has become the most revered instrument in European science policy and one of the world’s most important bodies for the funding of academic research. Its grants are much sought after by researchers and scholars and it is widely considered to have had a major impact on resear...
Public research funding agencies are required to address pro-actively interdisciplinary research. This article looks specifically at two funding agencies – the US National Science Foundation (NSF) and the EU European Research Council (ERC) – how these bodies promote interdisciplinarity, on the one hand, and how they claim to identify it, on the oth...
Based on 16 recommendations, efforts should be made to achieve the following goal:
By 2025, a large part of all scholarly publication activity in Austria should be Open Access. In other words, the final versions of most scholarly publications (in particular all refereed journal articles and conference proceedings) resulting from the support of pub...
Basierend auf 16 Empfehlungen wird empfohlen, folgendes Ziel anzustreben:
Bis 2025 ist ein Gutteil der wissenschaftlichen Publikationstätigkeit in Österreich auf Open Access umgestellt. Das bedeutet, dass die meisten wissenschaftlichen Publikationen (insbesondere referierte Zeitschriftenartikel und Konferenzschriften), die aus Unterstützung mit öf...
In this article, I outline the evaluation process established by the European Research Council (ERC) and present results of the ERC’s funding calls between 2007 and 2012. Because of its European added value, the ERC is a unique funding organization in the European research landscape. Based on a rigorous evaluation process, the ERC dedicates a consi...
Gestützt auf 16 Empfehlungen sollten Anstrengungen gemacht werden, um folgendes Ziel zu erreichen: Bis 2025 ist die gesamte wissenschaftliche Publikationstätigkeit in Österreich auf Open Access umgestellt. Das bedeutet, dass alle wissenschaftlichen Publikationen, die aus Unterstützungen mit öffentlichen Mitteln hervorgegangen sind, ohne Zeitverzöge...
Over the past 15 years, European research funding has become increasingly important for social and behavioral research. This article provides an overview of the most important developments, funding opportunities, and ongoing debates related to the European Research Area.
The history of funding in the social and behavioral sciences can best be described along different types of funding regimes. Starting with defining the term ‘funding,’ the article sets out to discuss those regimes and their emergence over the past two hundred years. It concludes with some remarks on recent discussions on the relationship of funding...
Based on 16 recommendations, efforts should be made to achieve the following goal:
By 2025, all scholarly publication activity in Austria should be Open Access. In other words, the final
versions of all scholarly publications resulting from the support of public resources must be freely
accessible on the internet without delay (Gold Open Access). T...
Bis 2025 ist die gesamte wissenschaftliche Publikationstätigkeit in Österreich auf Open Access umgestellt. Das bedeutet, dass alle wissenschaftlichen Publikationen, die aus Unterstützung mit öffentlichen Mitteln hervorgegangen sind, ohne Zeitverzögerung und in der finalen Version im Internet frei zugänglich sind (Gold Open Access). Die dafür notwen...
There is much confusion about role and meaning of peer review today. This deficit is surprising, given the fact that peer review has become something like a mantra within the various scientific communities. Its most controversial deployment today is in research funding, where it is revered by some and loathed by others. The starting point for this...
Despite many warning voices pointing to the organizational weaknesses of this instrument, the European Research Council (ERC) is considered a success story of European research policy. How did that come about? This research note takes a look inside the ERC's administrative body, the ERC Executive Agency. Based on personal experience, the text provi...
The volume is the third of four on critically assessing the history of the University of Vienna since the mid-19th century. Starting with a reflection on the weaknesses of university history (as a sub-discipline of historiography of science), the five contributions look at very different aspects of impact of the university and the scientific practi...
Grant Application Review: The Case of Transparency Public funding agencies should be more transparent in awarding research grants to allow researchers and the public better insight into decision making.
The Vilnius conference aimed at bringing together representatives of the Social
Sciences and Humanities (SSH) from all around Europe to improve the ways in which
Human and Social Sciences may impact the new European research framework
programme, Horizon 2020. We were delighted by the strong words of support by the
Commissioner at the conference...
„Erfolgreich promovieren“ begleitet Promovierende aller Disziplinen durch die gesamte Promotion, von der Entscheidung zur Promotion, über die Planung, die Erstellung eines Exposés und dem Schreibprozess bis hin zur Fertigstellung der Dissertation, der Prüfung und Veröffentlichung. Zu den ausführlich behandelten Rahmenbedingungen zählen beispielswei...
http://www.researchresearch.com/index.php?option=com_news&template=rr_2col&view=article&articleId=1339744
In a ten-year long phase of reform and expansion of the higher education system from the mid-1960s on, the discipline of political science was established and institutionalized in Austria. But which scientific concepts were available back then, and which were actually applied? Focusing on their epistemological characteristics, this article argues t...
My book 'Die Frühgeschichte des Fulbright Program in Österreich: Transatlantische "Fühlungnahme auf dem Gebiete der Erziehung"' (Studienverlag, 2012) is based on extensive research in the archives of the Austrian-American Educational Commission and investigates the impact of the Fulbright Program in Austria from its inception in 1950 until the mid-...
The academic reform in the 1960s and 1970s were formative years for the history of science in the Second Republic of Austria. Political Science, as a discipline, was particularly affected -not the least because this was the time when the discipline was, finally, institutionalized. This article, however, examines the back-ground why the study of pol...
A Legal Act in the Making: Austrian Higher Education Politics in the 19505. The article investigates the political debate around the Austrian Uni· versity Organisation Act from 1955. It focuses on three fields of dispute: The autonomy of the universities, the appointment procedure of professors, and the question of (parliamentary) control of the po...
In a ten-year long phase of reform and expansion of the higher education system from the mid-1960s on, the discipline of political science was established and institutionalized in Austria. But which scientific concepts were available back then, and which were actually applied? Focusing on their epistemological characteristics, this article argues t...
The academic reform in the 1960s and 1970s were formative years for the history of science in the Second Republic of Austria. Political Science, as a discipline, was particularly affected - not the least because this was the time when the discipline was, finally, institutionalized. This article, however, examines the background why the study of pol...
The article investigates the political debate around the Austrian University Organisation Act from 1955. It focuses on three fields of dispute: The autonomy of the universities, the appointment procedure of professors, and the question of (parliamentary) control of the powerful ministry of education. Based on yet uncovered sources from the Austrian...
After suffering severely from political meddling and murderous persecution, faculties of universities in the early Second Republic were facing a period of provincialisation - or so the common hypothesis goes. However, coherent evidence is lacking. Analysing a sample of 189 professors and lecturers at the University of Vienna, this article answers t...
After suffering severely from political meddling and murderous persecution, faculties of universities in the early Second Republic were facing a period of provincialisation - or so the common hypothesis goes. However, coherent evidence is lacking. Analysing a sample of 189 professors and lecturers at the University of Vienna, this article answers t...
"After suffering severely from political meddling and murderous persecution, faculties of universities in the early Second Republic were facing a period of provincialisation – or so the common hypothesis goes. However, coherent evidence is lacking. Analysing a sample of 189 professors and lecturers at the University of Vienna, this article answers...
FleckChristian. Transatlantische Bereicherungen: Zur Erfindung der Empirischen Sozialforschung. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 2007. Pp. 578, tables. - Volume 41 - Thomas Koenig
"The Internet is often called a risky medium. Dangers like pornography or the glorifi cation of violence are in the main focus of the public and the media. Discussions about the Internet and its opportunities and risks are on the daily agenda of many politicians, teachers and families. But most of the time the answers to these social questions are...
'Das Doktoratsstudium ist in den letzten Jahren zunehmend ins Blickfeld gelangt: Es steht im Schnittpunkt zweier aktueller politischer Debatten: die erste betrifft den steigenden Bedarf an qualifizierten NachwuchsforscherInnen, die zweite die grundlegende Umstrukturierung des europäischen Hochschulraums durch den so genannten 'Bologna-Prozess' (Ver...
Questions
Questions (2)
Next week, the Lithuanian EU Presidency conference "Horizons for Social Sciences and Humanities" will take place in Vilnius ( http://horizons.mruni.eu/conference-theme/ ). It reacts on the so-called "integrative approach" by the European Commission in preparing the "Horizon 2020" research funding program, and more precisely its third pillar, the "societal challenges". Seven such challenges have been predefined by Commission (in collaboration with European Parliament and European Council). The question is, however: What does integration of social sciences and humanities actually mean? Can "SSH" really contribute to "societal challenges"? And what is required to make this possible? Before the conference takes place, I am curious to hear your opinion. (For further details, see also my commentary on the ERA blog.)
This is the description of the round table at the upcoming ECPR general conference in Bordeaux, between 9:00 and 10:40 on Thursday 5 September, room P9:
"Academic journals are an important infrastructure for a scholarly discipline like political science. Professional editing and reviewing are instrumental to achieve high-quality products. Moreover, it has become common to scientometrists, research managers and policy makers to use journal output and article citation for their analysis and decision-making. One early, and particularly prominent variable in this game has been the "impact factor" (IF). With the "San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment", the scientific community recently attempted to critically counter the tendency to misuse the IF, as well as other metrics. In this round table, the usage of the IF among leading political science journals will be discussed, as well as its usage for decision-making processes in the social sciences. Are there alternative models to assess scientific quality in the social sciences?"
