Latest Projects

Research project (§ 26 & § 27)
Duration : 2020-01-01 - 2022-12-31

Digital data processing and the possibilities of data and knowledge management have massively changed the way we work in daily life. Whereas previously all information had to be recorded manually on paper, the information and communication technologies (ICT) allow a largely automated documentation and processing of the data necessary for the daily work process. The opportunities that this ultimately opens up for agriculture must be seized at all costs in order not to lose touch with international developments. The foundation of the platform "Digitisation in Agriculture" in 2017 has taken this challenge into account. The report of the same name, published in November 2018, not only described the state of development, but above all proposed a number of measures that could contribute to the further development and benefit of new technologies in agriculture. The planned project takes up the objectives set out in the cluster call with a comprehensive package of measures. On the one hand, the project aims to make the new technological developments more visible to farmers (Project II). In further sub-projects, solutions for simplifying extension services and farm management (project III) as well as concepts for simplified assessment of environmental impacts with the help of new technologies (project V) are to be developed. A general, extremely sensitive and important topic is the legal framework conditions, which will be analysed in Project IV and presented in the form of illustrative use cases. These extensive tasks can only be dealt with through the cooperation of experienced and competent experts and institutions. The new and innovative approach in the cluster project represents the bundling of the competences of the most important actors in the field of digitisation in agriculture. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Research project (§ 26 & § 27)
Duration : 2023-11-10 - 2025-02-09

Young people have an important role to play in a society's ability to innovate, as they can become effective through new and unfamiliar approaches to problems and creative, innovative ideas, thereby enabling the continuity and further development of our society. The active participation of young people in local and regional development is also considered to be of great importance in promoting identification with the community and region, promoting social cohesion and a sense of responsibility, as well as reducing the likelihood of young people moving away. The establishment of youth councils in Lower Austria in 2013 was an important step towards representing the group of young people and young adults at municipal level and ensuring an exchange between various youth-related organisations, associations, educational institutions and the province of Lower Austria. However, practice shows that the opportunities for young people to participate in solving social issues are limited and the existing participation programmes are often not adequate to successfully involve young people. At the same time, youth is a very short development phase during which interests and priorities change rapidly. This makes it all the more important to work with adequate methods and on topics identified jointly with young people (co-creation). This project therefore addresses the following research questions: Which location- and region-specific potentials and challenges of youth participation in the LEADER region Wein4tel Donauraum can be identified and which recommendations for action can be derived? What are the wishes and needs of young people in the Weinviertel Donauraum region and how can these be taken into account in local and regional decision-making? Which participation formats appeal to young people and how would they themselves design participation formats?
Research project (§ 26 & § 27)
Duration : 2024-02-01 - 2027-01-31

The RETOOL project aims to develop novel conceptual, empirical and policy-relevant insights on the relationship between democratic governance and the climate imperative, and by doing so reinvigorate democratic responses to the climate crisis in Europe. We will do so by: (i) developing new conceptual and empirical foundations for studying climate democracy; (ii) studying existing practice and innovations in democratic governance across a range of domains of climate transitions and levels of governance; (iii) synthesising knowledge across fields of study to identify opportunities for institutional strengthening and reform; and (iv) developing accessible and impactful project outputs, including a flagship publication, State of European Climate Democracy, and disseminating them to a diverse range of audiences in order to create new pathways for improving effectiveness of climate democracy and opportunities to mobilise and engage a diverse range of citizens through participation.

Supervised Theses and Dissertations