The University of Vienna was founded in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and one of the largest in Central Europe. At present, about 85,000 students are enrolled at the University of Vienna, in close to 180 courses. The University of Vienna is also the largest teaching and research institution in Austria with close to 8,600 employees, 6,500 of which are scientists and academics.

The Institute for Research Information and Quality Assurance (iFQ – Institut für Forschungsinformation und Qualitätssicherung) is a scientific institute, which is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG – Deutsche Forschungs¬gemeinschaft). The main focus of the institute is on monitoring and analysing national research systems, with special emphasis on the German research system. Another major task of the institute is the evaluation of research funding programs, a particular focus is on funding programmes run by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschat (DFG) but, also those initiated and run by other funding organisations e.g. the ERC are dealt with.
The iFQ is located in Bonn.