2023 has started, and everyone at Fulbright Austria is very excited about all the opportunities that await us. I hope you all had relaxing holidays to recharge and get inspired. We and all our partners welcome back our cohort of students and teaching assistants who started their journey in fall 2022. We are happy to welcome Nina Tannenwald, our new Fulbright-Diplomatic Academy Visiting Professor of International Studies, who just started her grant here in Austria. Furthermore, we look forward to meeting the 15 incoming US scholars of the spring cohort at the orientation in Vienna. This month must be a very special and exciting time as they are preparing for their travel to Austria.
I would also like to use this opportunity to welcome the new Fulbright Austria board members to the community: Franziska Honsowitz-Friessnigg, Gerhard Piringer, and Martin Waiguny. Join me in congratulating them for the energy they bring to our community.
In the same vein, I would like to express my sincere thanks to our retiring board members—Marcus Bergmann, Maria-Regina Kecht, and Roberta Maierhofer—for their dedication and service on the Fulbright Austria board for so many years. Without their contribution and expertise, Fulbright Austria would not stand as strong as it does today.
With the beginning of this new year, it is also a good time to reflect on what our community achieved in 2022 and what new opportunities await us in 2023. Take a look at our 2022 year-in-review video, which summarizes the many things we are grateful for.
We are looking forward to the new awards and opportunities that were created in 2022, including the new partnership with Paracelsus Medical University, the new mobility agreement with the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (mdw), and the relaunch of the Fulbright-Diplomatic Academy Student Award. In addition, we set out to create something very special in the Fulbright universe: the Fulbright Specialist in the Arts award, which encourages Austrian institutions to host artists from all fields starting in the 2024–25 program year. Stay tuned for more information about this new grant. In the meantime, explore the Fulbright Specialist Program, which is open to Austrian institutions in all fields. All these new opportunities combined with our existing portfolio of excellent awards highlight that Fulbright Austria aims to provide opportunies for bright minds of all fields in all regions of Austria and the US.
In this new year in which we all continue to face the challenges of a pandemic, climate change, and a war in Europe, we heavily rely on the program’s core values: leadership, learning, and empathy between cultures. In closing, I wish all of us a happy 2023 full of energy and hope to see you one of our upcoming events.
