Support for post doc research fellows
The EU-funded 'Erwin Schroedinger fellowships' (SCHROEDINGER FELLOWS) project deals with the largest outgoing basic research programme at postdoctoral level in Austria, the Erwin Schrödinger Programme which is open for all scientific disciplines and the humanities. Through it, new areas of knowledge, scientific approaches, methods and techniques should be opened for the fellows to broaden and deepen their competence while establishing long-lasting international cooperation. Already founded in 1985, the programme was re-evaluated in 2006 in order to strengthen it with different measures. Furthermore, in 2013 and 2014, an external evaluation was launched. The Evaluation report and an executive summary have been published with very positive results, especially in regard to the programme improvements made within the frame of COFUND. For individual researchers, the programme had a positive impact on research output and career development, which was confirmed via a survey. Higher publication and citation rates as well as a higher volume of publications were shown by bibliographic analysis. Major improvements made have been maintained and a very high satisfaction has been reported with both programme design and management. The work will have a positive impact on the overall international research area in the future.