The global pandemic shows us daily that the most important challenges of our time can only be solved with collaboration at a binational and global level. Located in a small country with a large network of institutional partners on both sides of the Atlantic, Fulbright Austria is dedicated to knowledge transfer and cooperation to strengthen transatlantic relations. With the support of our institutional partners, we offer more than 27 hyphenated awards for US Scholars and students.

The COVID-19 crisis has just begun to demonstrate the benefits of the international collaborations that have been established since the first institutional partnership in 1997. Given the complexity of the world, it is important to include a wide variety of academic fields in our network of bright minds. In 2021 we took the bold step with the Medical University of Innsbruck to establish the first US scholar award with a medical university in Austria.

The Medical University of Innsbruck is a renowned university in the Austrian educational landscape and beyond, with a strong portfolio of academic fields in addition to medicine, including life science and more. The university hosts about 3,000 students and 2,000 faculty and staff members in its theoretical and clinical departments.

With a long history going back to 1562 when a Jesuit grammar school was established in Innsbruck, the Medical University of Innsbruck became an independent university in 2004. As the Faculty of Medicine of the “Leopold-Franzens-Universität,” which was founded in 1669, and with three Nobel Prize winners, it has always been a flagship institution in the Austrian academic landscape. The Medical University of Innsbruck aims to increase participation in structured mobility programs as well as to promote and expand opportunities for mobility within existing university cooperations. Observerships are currently offered for qualified foreign medical students, physicians, and scientists who wish to visit the university to observe a particular department’s activities.

It is also the university’s objective to ensure that all members of the university are able to enjoy the benefits of mobility, where possible. In recent years, the Medical University of Innsbruck has been actively involved in a variety of cooperation projects.

Before the Medical University of Innsbruck became an independent university in 2004, it was part of the University of Innsbruck, one of our longstanding partners. With the separation of the Faculty of Medicine and the establishment of the Medical University of Innsbruck in 2004, this institutional link was lost. Thanks to this new partnership, we have a wonderful opportunity to reestablish this connection.

We are proud to announce that starting in the 2023–24 program year, one US scholar will teach and research in the field of life science and medical science in Innsbruck. The award is open to early-, mid-, and late-career scholars with a PhD or equivalent. The candidates should be experts in the field of life science and public health, including molecular biology, biochemistry, microbiology, bioinformatics, biostatistics, or medical engineering. With this new award, we establish new bridges between the US and Austria that will help to tackle the problems of tomorrow.

For further details, see also the webpage of the Medical University of Innsbruck.