Foreword

Dear Readers,

2010 brought a mix of both good and bad news for Vienna University of Technology (TU Vienna). First place amongst the not so good new reports goes to the Ministry of Science and Research, which has planned a significant tightening of the budget by 10 percent for the coming performance period (2013 - 2015). However, in contrast, the opening of the new "Lehartrakt" chemistry building on Getreidemarkt was a very positive event. The fourth annual report is intended to provide information on this, as well as on our core tasks of research and teaching, which is available to you online.

We have once again summarised the most important information from the official reports (knowledge survey and financial statement) and put it together in what I hope you will find an enjoyable format. In this way, we hope to provide our "stakeholders" — i.e. anyone interested in how their taxes are being spent, school students who are interested in technical-scientific studies (as well as their parents and teachers), and of course companies that are interested in the results of our research, our alumni and current students, political and economical decision-makers and (last, but not least) our own employees — with an insight into the past year at TU Vienna.

I hope you enjoy reading the report!

Peter Skalicky
Rector of Vienna University of Technology