Conditions for WPI membership

The conditions for membership are defined in the by-laws that can be changed only at a general assembly by a majority vote of the full members.

The basic guidelines are:

There is no condition of Austrian nationality for membership; all scientists working in Austria are welcome. Upon decision of the board, any individual or corporation may become an associate member .
Particularily welcome are scientists who intend to apply for a project eligible for full membership. They can profite from the experience and infrastructure of the WPI for preparing their proposal and find high-level partners for setting up interdisciplinary projects.

The condition to become a full member is a high-level grant/award project of approx. 1 Mill Euro with a minimum duration of three years. The core requirement is that the evaluation of the award/grant has to be a 2 step procedure on the highest international level, independent of national/political influence. A "best practice" evaluation procedure ERC grants or START/Wittgenstein awards.

Currently the following type of projects are explicitly eligible for full membership :

• START/Wittgenstein award

• ERC grant (starting, consolidator, advanced, synergy)

• Coordinator of EU network project (FET, COST, Marie Curie network,…)

• Speaker of a FWF Doktoratskollegs, Sonderforschungsbereich

• WWTF chair

Full membership is only temporary and expires 3 years after the end of the underlying project.
Thereafter, the full member becomes a corresponding member for lifetime.

Major decisions are reserved for full members.
This ensures that the decision body at the WPI is composed merely of active scientists running large projects.

While active voting rights are reserved for full members, associate and corresponding members are eligible to be board members, director or president .