At its 139th meeting on October 20, 2025, the Senate of TU Wien adopted the following statement:

With regard to the statements made by Dr. Rudolf Taschner in his capacity as science spokesperson for the Austrian People's Party in the National Council at the beginning of July 2025 concerning the funding of a humanities project by the FWF, as well as the ongoing media references to Mr. Dr. Taschner as “TU professor” or “TU Vienna professor,” the Senate of TU Wien states the following:

• The Senate of TU Wien stands for a pluralistic scientific landscape and emphasizes the importance of further developing and promoting various scientific disciplines and domains in basic and applied research within the disciplines, but also in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary cooperation for the prosperous development of society as a whole.
• The Senate of TU Wien trusts in the instruments of peer review with regard to research funding as a quality assurance measure.
• The Senate of TU Wien is grateful for the diverse and varied research funding landscape that has been established in Austria and considers Mr. Taschner's statements to be an unjustified attack on this landscape.
• Due to the repeated references to Dr. Taschner as a “TU professor” or “TU Wien professor” in various media outlets, the Senate of TU Wien emphasizes that the statements made by Dr. Taschner regarding the quality and funding amount of the criticized humanities project should not and must not be understood in any way as statements made by the institution TU Wien. TU Wien assumes that the peer review process that led to the funding of the criticized project meets international standards for the quality assessment of research efforts.