Scientific contact person: Univ. Prof. Kristina Orehounig (kristina.orehounig@tuwien.ac.at)
Webpage of your present research group: bpi.tuwien.ac.at

Building Components Group will be located at the Institute for Architectural Science and will bridge material innovation with building physics and structural design. It will develop materials, components and systems that are optimized for multiple life cycles—such as reversible assemblies, bio-based components and envelopes or novel materials that capture and store CO2. Close collaboration with building physics and structural design will enable rigorous evaluation of how circular materials behave in real environments and building structures and will contribute to a circular built environment.

Scientific contact person: Univ.Prof.Georg Steinhauser (georg.steinhauser@tuwien.ac.at) 
Webpage of your present research group: https://www.ias.tuwien.ac.at/gs, öffnet eine externe URL in einem neuen Fenster 

Radioecology deals with the occurrence, migration, sources, and sinks of radioactive isotopes of both natural and anthropogenic origin in the environment. The research group “Applied Radiochemistry” at TU Wien established international reputation in understanding the origins and the backgrounds of anthropogenic radioactive contaminations in a field that has been coined by our research, “environmental nuclear forensics.” Unsurprisingly, radioecology and environmental nuclear forensics focuses on the radionuclides. However, in some instances, the radionuclide itself does not provide sufficient information to fully understand the nature of a contamination. In this proposed research, we would like to include in our assessment the stable and quasi-stable decay products of radioactive decay. By doing so, we would like to expand the current and established approach into a completely new field, “stable isotope radioecology.”

Scientific contact person: Univ. Prof. Richard Arthur Wilhelm (richard.wilhelm@tuwien.ac.at) 
Webpage of your present research group: https://tuwien.at/phy/iap/app, öffnet eine externe URL in einem neuen Fenster 

The surfaces of planets, moons, and asteroids not protected by a thick atmosphere are significantly altered by the interaction with their plasma environment. Energy deposition near the surface can cause optical and chemical changes, thus significantly contributing to space weathering effects. Implanted solar wind ions cause hydration of rocky surfaces in the solar system, while sputtering by ion impacts brings atoms into the exosphere. There orbiting spacecraft can directly sample these species to study surface composition and surface processes without the necessity of a lander. The breadth of these surface processes is still only partially understood and further experimental and theoretical studies are necessary to shape our understanding of processes regarding surface-environment interaction in space, and to correctly interpret spacecraft observations as well as analysis of returned samples. The research is especially timely, as several ongoing and planned ESA spacecraft missions plan to study such phenomena (BepiColombo at Mercury, Juice at the icy moons of Jupiter, and RAMSES at the asteroid Apophis). 

The proposed research group will use the existing ion irradiation infrastructure at the Institute of Applied Physics to develop a new research program, focusing on the interaction of ions of the solar wind and planetary magnetospheres with rocky and icy surfaces in space. The group will thus enable new high-fidelity laboratory analog studies of surface alteration mechanisms throughout the solar system, accompanied by several modeling approaches. The research is embedded in ongoing work on ion-solid interactions in the Research Unit of Atomic and Plasma Physics and will profit from the large expertise on related processes acquired over the last decades at TU Wien. 

The Vienna Research Group will provide key insights to an improved understanding of surface-environment interaction in space and directly inform upcoming space missions.

Scientific contact person: Univ. Prof. Wolfgang Wagner (wolfgang.e120.wagner@tuwien.ac.at) 

Climate change and human activities are pushing the terrestrial water cycle into uncharted territory, making it increasingly difficult to predict and manage water resources. Already now, water systems are under increasing stress, particularly during droughts and floods, causing huge economic losses and social suffering. A major scientific challenge is the lack of data on human activities, calling for an effective integration of high resolution Earth observation data, in situ networks and social media data with traditional meteorological and meteorological data to describe both natural and anthropogenic processes, as well as interactions. We therefore propose to establish a new Vienna Research Group that carries out basic research for integrating satellite, in situ, model and social media data, with the aim to improve the monitoring and prediction of the terrestrial water cycle. The integration shall be physically based using a combination of process-based and machine learning methods. This research will facilitate more informed decision-making in critical sectors such as agricultural production, energy generation, urban water management, and disaster risk reduction, thereby contributing to sustainable water resource management and socio-economic resilience.