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On 16 September 2026, the 16th BOKU CAS Autumn Conference, held under the motto 'Ploughing Together – Towards an Equal and Future-Proof Agriculture!', took place at the Ilse Wallentin House at BOKU. This year's conference was jointly organised...
On October 3rd, Katrin Hofer and Astrid Reitter welcomed seven Ukrainian students to the BAB as part of their Erasmus+ trip. The aim was to provide them with a comprehensive overview of the activities and research areas of the Federal Institute. Using selected projects as examples, the wide range of topics was clearly presented, followed by a joint discussion on methods and possibilities for data collection and analysis.
The RURACTIVE project aims to strengthen rural communities that are committed to local and regional change. The aim is to enable equitable and sustainable development of rural areas. RURACTIVE considers solutions as place-based practices, products, processes, etc. that are intended to lead rural communities to sustainable transformation through innovation. The Austrian example region (Dynamo) is southern Burgenland (Südburgenland). Our local partner is the Burgenland Business Agency (Thomas...
From September 30 to October 4 2024, various final events took place in Baku as part of the Erasmus+ project UniClaD (Support of Cluster Development at Universities). The results of the establishment of technology centers at universities in Azerbaijan, Moldova and Ukraine were presented over two workshopdays. In a following two-day public conference, selected results of the project were presented and discussed, e.g. cluster theories, comparison of policies and legal frameworks in the...
The COST Connect event, titled “Agriculture and its products” took place on October 17-18 in Brussels with the aim of fostering interdisciplinary collaboration to address the complex challenges facing the agricultural sector. Somaye Latifi from BAB was one of the representatives of the COST Action MARGISTAR (Transforming marginalised mountainous areas towards their green, digital, and healthy futures) at this gathering. On the first day, policymakers and stakeholders shared insights into...
The 18th World Agritourism Day, held on May 15–16, 2025, focused on the theme “Innovating Agritourism for a Sustainable Future: Empowering Rural Economies and Preserving Cultures.” Organized by the India Agritourism Development Corporation with support from the Global Agritourism Network (GAN), the event highlighted how agritourism can strengthen rural regions, boost local economies, and preserve cultural heritage. A special highlight was a presentation “Agritourism Around the World:...
The 20th conference of the European Rural Development Network (ERDN) with the theme “Green Transformation in the European Rural Areas” took place from 11 - 13.9.2024 at the Lithuanian Center for Social Sciences, Institute of Economics and Rural Development in Vilnius. Contributions from institutions from Brazil, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and the Czech Republic dealt with various topics of rural development, such...
From 16 to 18 May 2024, the 2nd World Agritourism Congress, titled "Agritourism is more!", was held at the EURAC in Bolzano, South Tyrol. This event served as a global forum for scientists, practitioners, associations, stakeholders, businesses, and various other participants. With the main focus on sustainability, the aim was to explore the state-of-the-art, challenges, opportunities, and limitations of agritourism along with future development perspectives in rural areas worldwide. With 11...
From 7 to 10 July 2026, the 3rd International Symposium on Work in Agriculture (ISWA 2026) took place in Zollikofen, Switzerland. The international event addressed current and future challenges of work in agriculture from the perspectives of research, policy, and practice, and brought together 200 participants from 20 countries. Erika Quendler’s presentation was about a capability framework. Through this framework, she illustrates how education and training can support young people in...
In the APCC Special Report on Land Use and Climate Change in Austria, the current state of knowledge was systematically reviewed, summarized and evaluated. An open process was developed and pursued that enabled the entire Austrian community of researchers and experts in the field of land system research to actively contribute. Heidi Grüneis contributed as lead author in Chapter 4: Adaptation options in land use to climate change. The report was published in April 2024 and is freely...
Within the framework of the Erasmus+ project UniClaD ("Enhancing capacity of universities to initiate and to participate in clusters development on innovation and sustainability principles ") a series of study tours to EU countries are carried out with the aim to support the consortium partners in the development of agrofood clusters in Moldova, Ukraine and Azerbaijan. From March 27 to 31, 2023, a study tour was conducted in Austria, organized by the Federal Institute of Agricultural...
The contribution of Theresia Oedl-Wieser dealt with the empowerment of women in a high mountain region in Georgia or results of community-led local development initiatives. Among other things, it was shown that many local activities are based on long-term socio-cultural processes that require a deep awareness of site-specific conditions and sufficient time for the development of adapted measures. The presentation of Th. Oedl-Wieser starts at minute 52:26 and can be accessed at the following...
From small businesses to digital infrastructure and protective forests – expertise for sustainable mountain development At the International Mountain Conference IMC 2025, which took place in Innsbruck from September 14 to 18, 2025, key issues for the future relating to the sustainable development of mountain regions were once again discussed. Scientists from various disciplines presented their research findings and highlighted the role that socio-economic diversity, digital infrastructure,...
On 27.11.2024, the Croatian Chamber of Agriculture organised the BIOEAST Science-Policy Dialogue “Bioenergy Smart Choices in Difficult Times” with 35 participants. The Federal Institute of Agricultural Economics and Mountain Farming presented results from the BIOECO-UP project on the topic of “How can EU policy support the bioeconomy?”. “BIOECO-UP - Circular bioeconomy market uptake and policy support in Central Europe” (CE0100254) is supported by the Interreg Central Europe...
Julian Zeilinger, Jochen Kantelhardt and Andreas Niedermayr published an article in which they investigate: (i) which factors influence participation in soil protection measures in the Austrian agri-environmental programme ÖPUL in arable farming regions and (ii) how participation in these measures affects the operating results of farms in the context of climate change. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1477-9552.12620 Limiting the impact of climate change on agriculture is a...
To support the use and exploitation of project results after project closure, BIOECO-UP is currently organising dissemination and networking activities particularly in the geographical region of Central and Eastern Europe (BIOECO-UP project: AT, CZ, IT, HR, HU, PL, SI, SK; BIOEAST Initiative: BG, CZ, EE, HR, HU, LT, LV, PL, RO, SI, SK). In a joint BIOECO-UP-BIOEAST meeting (26.02.2026, online), the Federal Institute of Agricultural Economics, Rural and Mountain Research (BAB) presented...
The 2nd Agricultural and Forestry Science Conference took place in Vienna on 26.06.2024 and was dedicated to the topic “From the field to the future: Circular economy as a pioneer for innovation and sustainability”. The Federal Institute of Agricultural Economics and Mountain Farming presented the BIOECO-UP project at this conference by means of an elevator pitch and poster (in German, available for download below). “BIOECO-UP - Circular bioeconomy market uptake and policy support in...
Business analysis of staggered transition periods to minimum housing standards in pig fattening and piglet rearing Following the annulment of the 2022 amendment to the Animal Welfare Act (TSchG) and the 1st Animal Husbandry Ordinance (THVO) by the Constitutional Court (VfGH), this study conducts a business analysis of staggered transition periods to minimum housing standards in pig fattening and piglet rearing. To evaluate the changes in costs and performance associated with the transition...
As part of the k.i.d.Z.21 project, a researcher's week was held at the beginning of July for second grade students at the Radstadt secondary school. They were able to acquire competencies in adaptation strategies and action skills in dealing with climate change. The young people were allowed to conduct their own research and were supported by experts in the fields of tourism, glaciers, botany and environmental ethics. BAB staff member Heidi Grüneis accompanied the children on the topic of...
From July 3-5, 2023, the Congress of the Austrian Sociological Association (ÖGS) took place at WU Vienna under the title "Critical Times". More than 300 exciting lectures in over 100 events, including keynotes, plenaries, ad hoc groups, section events and special events offered a rich program for the visitors. The BAB was involved in the organization of two section events (cooperation of the Urban Research and Rural Social Research sections of ÖGS): - Conceptual (De-)Constructions of the...
The International Farm Comparison Network (IFCN) invited dairy researchers from all over the world to its 26th Dairy Conference in the Netherlands. The theme of this year's conference was ‘Future dairy farming systems: resilience as a path to sustainability’. The event took place in Leeuwarden, a key hub for innovation and research in the dairy industry in the Netherlands, which plays a central role in promoting sustainable and efficient dairy farming practices. The event took place from...
In July, the third meeting of the Erasmus+ project "CoRoots" ("Communicating roots: co-learning to improve rural resilience and governance") took place. This time, 2 colleagues from BAB and 5 participants from Spain travelled to Covilhã, Portugal, to see social innovation projects in rural areas on the ground. As an introduction, the hosts PRIP (Prout Research Institute) and the Universidade Beira Interior presented their theoretical and methodological approaches at the university in...
Director Thomas Resl has left the Federal Institute of Agriculture and Mining for the private sector as of 31 August 2023. Until a new director is appointed, his deputy Thomas Dax is in charge.
In the framework of the project CoRoots (Co-learning methods to improve resilience management in rural areas) the project meeting with Spanish and Portuguese project partners took place this time in Soria (Central Spain). The region is characterised by migration and is very sparsely populated. On the barren soils of the cold plateau, the landscape is characterised by hat pastures and barley fields (for beer production). Cives Mundi - our Spanish project partner - is an NGO dedicated to...
The 65th Annual Conference of the German Society for Agricultural Economics and Social Sciences (GEWISOLA) took place from 23 to 25 September 2026 at the Thünen Institute in Braunschweig. The BAB was represented by two presentations: Martin Schönhart, Richard Maria, and Christoph Tribl presented under the title A Data Pool to Support Austrian Agricultural Policy Design and Evaluation introducing the BAB as a data competence centre. The professional collection, validation, processing,...