In Austria there exist considerable career barriers for female researchers. Surveys show that in non-academic research, leading positions are occupied almost exclusively by men. The proportion of women in executive positions is 3.8 percent. The proportion of women in supervisory boards, boards of management and scientific advisory councils is between 0 and 9.8 percent, while chances of professional advancement for women in cooperative research are decreasing every year.

Why are the competences of highly qualified women not reflected in top-level management? In order to identify the structural obstacles for female researchers’ careers and to devise strategies for change, w-fFORTE commissioned a survey with the Austrian Society for Environment and Technology (OGUT) in 2005. It served to prepare the conceptual ground for the impetus programme “Laura Bassi Centres of Expertise”. The identified deficits obstructing women in non-academic research are:

• Intransparent awarding procedures
• Evaluation criteria adapted to standard male careers
• Alliance structures among male scientists in citation and publication ranking
• Women at universities get project jobs more often than men and have to do more administrative work – as a result, they have less time for career-boosting publication activities

So it is discriminating basic conditions that put women at a disadvantage, making it harder for women to get access to leading positions in cooperative research centres and not, as is often assumed, a lack of interest in technology and the natural sciences or a low availability of highly qualified female scientists. This is why the basic conditions for scientific work need to be changed, which is also in line with current requirements regarding job profiles in research. The demands are:

• Transparent, formalised awarding and evaluation structures
• Interdisciplinary and/or transdisciplinary research content
• Teamwork as a working principle, pushing developments ahead together
• Target-oriented research management
• Research contract as a contribution to solving specific (social) problems