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Volunteer firefighters are an established institution in many rural areas across Europe. In spite of this ubiquity, many volunteer brigades have been increasingly facing challenges in discharging their functions. Issues such as undertaking necessary investments, and ensuring daytime availability have become particularly critical against the backdrop of an increase in the number of interventions. Many of the measures intended to futureproof volunteer firefighting are based on transferring responsibility to different actors. To this end developing and expanding the reach of fire safety education functions to enhance the public's prevention and self-protection skills. The aim of this paper is to explore the process of institutional change induced by innovative initiatives, which aim to advance fire safety education. For the study, we draw on empirical research, which follows the development and mainstreaming of two projects in Austria and Germany. These initiatives aim to standardise disparate approaches and are underpinned by new forms of multi-level cooperation. Our inductive analysis identifies five key steps which define the successful long-term implementation of projects in coproduced services of general interest. We conclude with observations on the redistribution of responsibility for fire services and hazard prevention in contemporary societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental awareness is affected by fluctuations, which occur when other social events are prioritized. This paper investigates how environmental awareness of persons between the age of 20 and 30 living in Austria has changed during the period of the Covid-19 crisis compared to the period directly before. To answer this question a literature review and a quantitative survey (n = 210) on the affective and cognitive component of environmental awareness have been conducted. The results show a slight increase in the affective/cognitive component. This correlates with some socio-demographic characteristics and the change in certain behaviors but not with the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on one's life. However, the high topicality of the Covid-19 crisis, as well as the dynamic of the crisis, should be highlighted. Therefore, no assessment of the long-term development of environmental awareness can be made and further research is necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demographic change is very complex and difficult challenge for our society. Demographic change has become a crucial problem for many regions within in Austria. We expect a strong impact and pressure on the current social infrastructure across the country depending on the population change as householders are becoming more heterogeneous because of international migration, low birth rates, and ageing. However, the impact might be different for the regions as some regions might gain, some others might lose from this future development. This paper analyzes the effects and linkages of demographic change on flood risk management. The paper selected 17 experts from the health and care sector across the country with the aim to analyze their awareness, perspective and understanding of the interlinkages between demographic change, flood risk management and their influence on the current social infrastructure. The results show that there exists a high awareness of the problem, but on a very superficially touch upon. The main reason is the current lack of policy integration and co-operation between the various disciplines, which in turn means that the goal of "health-in-all policies" is at risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last ten years, a national IT infrastructure with an electronic health record (ELGA) has been established in Austria. In 2016, e-medication was successfully put into operation as an ELGA service. This paper summarizes the most important steps in the development of the project and presents essential results and lessons learned. The main challenges were the overlapping planning, testing, usability of the software products, and the coordination of the rollout. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews the activities and results of subproject 3 of the "Austrian Transition to Open Access" (AT2OA) project. The aim of the subproject was to provide financial, conceptual and organizational support for the establishment and operation of Open Access publication funds at Austrian universities. Against this background, the article summarizes the development and current status of publication funds in Austria. It describes the activities of the working group and presents the results of the subproject (working papers and recommendations). Short reports from 13 universities illustrate the evolution of publication funds at AT2OA partner institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the "Orientations towards the first Strategic Plan for Horizin Europe1", the strategy paper of the EU-Commission on the 9th EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, the following sentence can be found on the importance of Open Science: "Open science practices will be mainstreamed as the new modus operandi for EU research and innovation." Open Science will be the specification of how research should be carried out in the future with the help of digital tools and networks. Although the EU-Commission is a pioneer in this area, local funding bodies are already following suit. For research institutions, this means that the institutional research infrastructure must be further developed to meet these requirements. In the project "e-Infrastructures Austria Plus", seven work packages have begun to build up the know-how and technical infrastructures required for this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the Open Science Network Austria (OANA). It describes its history, development and structure before it defines Open Science as a general concept on the one hand, and in OANA's understanding on the other. The context and partners of OANA are presented and the most important programmatic accomplishments outlined. Finally, the current working groups of OANA and especially the work of the WG "Legal Aspects of Open Science" are explained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All the works, dealing with the nationality problem fundamentally, need a kind of generally applicable basis in the form of a consensus in connection with the usage of theoretical concepts like people and nation. In the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy primarily the complexity of factors and the lack of unity meant a problem that also characterised the particular Austrian nationality question. So, in the contemporary Austria, three radically different elements were against each other. Various ethnic groups, as well as the historical units of kingdoms and provinces were opposing the central power whilst the demands of the ethnic groups in comparison with the demands of the other two groups became more and more significant and radical. Nation and nationality are the products of social development, thus cannot be defined without the consideration of the geographical and chronological scope in question; in other words, in the Habsburg Monarchy of the 19th century, one way to define nation and nationality led through the contemporary theories of these concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]