FFG Austrian Research Promotion Agency

The Österreichische Forschungsförderungsgesellschaft (FFG, Austrian Research Promotion Agency) is the national funding institution for business-oriented research and development in Austria. It is owned by the Republic of Austria and based in Vienna.

In security and defence the FFG manages the civil security research programme KIRAS and the national defence research programme FORTE, which has been part of Austrian research funding since 2018. FORTE is financed by the Federal Ministry of Finance, with the Ministry of Defence and the Austrian Armed Forces as military user; it is designed to complement KIRAS and to improve the chances of Austrian participants in the European Defence Fund. The 2026 FORTE call is open from 5 October 2026 to 26 February 2027, with up to 2 million euros per project.

Drone-related research funded through these programmes includes acoustic drone detection by JOANNEUM RESEARCH (KIRAS and FORTE projects) and, in the aeronautics programme Take Off, the U-space drone verification project UAS-CheckPoint with AIT, Frequentis and Austro Control.