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Reimbursement of licence fees for AI tools used for research purposes

The costs of using external AI tools may only be covered for annual licences funded by third-party grants, provided that the following conditions are met and the application form is enclosed with the invoice.

Revised on 2 July 2026: Justified exceptions for monthly invoices, clarification regarding third-party funding, reimbursement of group licences.

Valid for invoices and refunds with a document date from 1 June 2026.

Requirements and Conditions

  1. Annual licence: In principle, TU Wien only reimburses annual licences. In justified exceptional cases, monthly invoices will be accepted, provided that the reason is stated in the comments field when entering the data in SAP.
  2. Third-party funding: Funding is provided by third-party funds. This includes all third-party funded projects as well as “Sammler” and “V-Innenaufträge”.
  3. Demonstration of need: By submitting the application, the applicant confirms that the specified AI tool is necessary for their own research activities and that neither Academic AI nor the tools provided by the TU Wien DataLab can meet the relevant requirements.
  4. Requirement to provide justification: The application must be accompanied by a clear, concise justification explaining the specific research purpose and the functionality required from the tool. This information serves to better assess the actual need and to tailor future offerings accordingly.
  5. Legal duty of care: Users must independently and on their own responsibility check for any (legal) restrictions on the use or uploading of content. In doing so, the user undertakes to comply with the applicable legal provisions, in particular copyright law, data protection law and the AI Act.
  6. Data protection: AI tools may only be used for research purposes and in compliance with data protection regulations, in particular the GDPR, the DSG and the applicable internal data protection guidelines of TU Wien.

In particular, the submission of the following content is prohibited:

  • personal data relating to third parties (with the exception of data lawfully available to the public, the processing of which is necessary for the specific research purpose),
  • confidential research data or internal information,
  • other sensitive information that allows conclusions to be drawn about individual persons.

In the event of a breach of due diligence obligations, TU Wien may hold itself harmless and indemnified.

Processing of Cost Reimbursement

The ‘Application for AI Tool Licence Fees’ form (german only) must be uploaded as an additional document in the Rechnungseingangsbuch (REB) for everyinvoice or refund relating to licence fees for AI tools. Once completed, the form can be uploaded for multiple invoices. For group licences, the form must be enclosed for each user.