Research

Drawing on its unique breadth of expertise, the University of Vienna has defined strategic priorities in which research is being conducted into key issues for our future. Researchers from the Faculty of Social Sciences are contributing their expertise to four of the six priorities:

The strategic priority Culture, Education, Democracy is dedicated to the foundations of human coexistence and communication in the face of conflicts arising from race, gender and politics.

Within the framework of Digital and Data-Driven Transformations of Science and Society, research is conducted into new technologies and their impact on society, ethics and the law.

The Climate, Environment. Sustainability priority area analyses how the Earth’s ecosystem can be restored to a stable, sustainable and equitable state, and whether and how climate change can be halted.

Under the heading Global Health: Physical, Mental and Social Dimensions of Health, the question of how physical and mental health can be guaranteed for all people is explored.

Within the Faculty, the wide-ranging research is organised, on the one hand, into the respective departments. To illustrate the diversity of the Faculty’s research activities as a whole, the various research priorities are presented by department in the ‘Thematic Areas’ section. 

Furthermore, the Faculty of Social Sciences places a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary, Faculty-wide research priorities. As part of its development planning, five key research areas have been established to strengthen the faculty’s research profile. These address key current societal challenges and processes of change and are organised across disciplines and departments.

In addition, the Faculty’s researchers are currently involved in three different cross-faculty research platforms, one research centre and three research networks. There are also a wide variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary research groups.

The transfer of knowledge to society plays a central role at the Ffaculty. The Societal Impact Platform makes the societal impact of social science research at the Faculty visible and tangible to the outside world through concrete projects. The strong presence of the Faculty’s researchers in national and international media also reflects the Faculty’s focus on science communication.