ZSI actively participates in the Austrian ERA Symposium 2025: Towards Europe’s Fifth Freedom, hosted by FFG on 17. November 2025 at Vienna TechGate.
ZSI is a key actor of the Austrian research landscape, contributing to the realisation of the policy agenda of the European Research Area (ERA) and its strategic development. Besides relevant projects such as POLICY ANSWERS, which works on the expansion of the ERA towards the Western Balkans, and LUKE, which works to link Ukraine to the European Research Area, ZSI also supports the ongoing implementation and development of the ERA Portal Austria.
The future of European research and innovation funding landscape and its strategic priorities were key points of conversation at the Austrian ERA Symposium 2025. Following the input provided by European Commissioner of Startups, Research and Innovation, Ekaterina Zaharieva, ZSI employees Stefanie Schuerz and Barbara Kieslinger were able to share their publication The impact of citizen science: 12 stories from across Europe with the Commissioner and with the Austrian Federal Minister of Women, Science and Research, Eva-Maria Holzleitner. The publication has been developed in the context of the Horizon Europe-funded ECS project.
The publication outlines key benefits of citizen engagement in research and innovation. It also stresses the need to support social innovation and solution co-design, which requires collaboration with key public stakeholders, in the upcoming 10th EU Research and Innovation Framework Programme. An in-depth argument on this position has been outlined in the position paper Citizen science for the future of Europe.
