Our Mission

In our age of knowledge and information, informatics represent one of the key sciences that shape and influence our development. Information and communication technologies permeate every aspect of life—from the macro-level of economy, government and society, to the micro-level of every individual’s personal living space. We at TU Wien Informatics strive to actively take part in creating and forming research trends. We believe excellence in both research and teaching is key to master tomorrow’s challenges.

We understand that with our dedication to innovation comes a particular responsibility towards society, and we aim to live up to it by engaging with the broader public. Our actions and decisions follow the principles of scientific excellence, integration of research and teaching, and fulfillment of our social responsibility.

About The Unique Role Of Universities

Our Three Pillars

We believe that universities comprise three pillars which—in their reciprocal interpenetration—makes them unique and essential: Scientific research, teaching, and their impact on societies through innovation. With our focus on excellent research, well-educated alumni, and the recognition of our responsibility towards society, we strive to strengthen and expand these pillars.

With its methods and artifacts, Informatics represents the one foundational science of our time which transforms every aspect of life. It thrives in a globalized environment, that becomes increasingly competitive—especially for research institutions. While dominating US-American IT companies and other big players are constantly founding new privately operated research entities, we as a university have to define our role and the context of our objectives:

• Excellence and international outreach
• Informatics “as subject” and “in subject”
• Attract and promote young talents, providing attractive career models
• Improve Diversity
• Increase public awareness of Informatics’ societal impact

Our Guidelines

• TU Wien Informatics Code of Ethics
• Vienna Manifesto on Digital Humanism
• TU Wien Code of Conduct in German

Our Key Values

Research Excellence

The focus of our research is application-oriented basic research. This is characterized by a primary focus on basic scientific research. In terms of application orientation, the questions are stimulated by practical problems and include a—albeit medium to long term—perspective of the practical implementation of the research results. Thus, we deliberately place our emphasis on science as the anti-pole to pure development.

In addition, we also consider the transfer of research results to be very important. Project-related cooperation with business and industry therefore has a long tradition and will continue to be supported and promoted in the future. The freedom and independence of research and teaching are a central requirement for this.

Integrate Research And Teaching

Due to the dynamic developments in the field of informatics, a close coupling between research and teaching as well as their international integration is necessary. For us, research-led teaching is a key prerequisite for high-quality training. In addition, however, the integration of practice is also increasingly necessary. This enables both the creative and innovative workforce required by the economy and society to be made available as well as qualified, internationally competitive young scientists. Our students receive a sound and comprehensive education with high problem-solving capacity, and are perfectly prepared for a broad variety of international career and development opportunities.

Social Responsibility

We are committed to our social responsibility. This exists above all with regard to the social relevance of informatics, such as data protection or data security, but also, for example, with regard to people with disabilities. This responsibility results in the obligation to comment publicly on topics relevant to informatics and thus to make the our own expertise available to society.

Women’s Equality and Promotion

Unfortunately, women are still underrepresented in informatics. To counter this, we actively promote women and their equality. We consider the different life situations and interests of women and men in research and teaching. We believe that the promotion of women is not necessary because they have special deficits - women are no better or worse suited to science and technology than their male counterparts - but to eliminate or reduce existing barriers. These arise solely from a numerical “minority position” in an environment in which male life contexts are the norm and female life experiences have only a low priority.