Future Hero Award

Jasmin Abdelsamad is committed to a more inclusive and sustainable health and social care system. As a nursing scientist and diversity and inclusion manager, she combines clinical practice, teaching, and development to promote equity in care and better working conditions in a sustainable way. A key focus is on gender equity, anti-racism, diversity, and highlighting structural inequalities. Through media appearances, lectures, and courses, she translates scientific findings into practice and advocates for changes that benefit patients and staff alike.

Graduate of the Bachelor’s program in Health Care and Nursing.

Health, inclusion, and quality of life: Serafina Feistl brings her holistic perspective as an occupational therapist to SERAFRICA, the NGO she founded. Together with local partners, she is committed to expanding educational opportunities for children in disadvantaged regions and for women in the Maasai community. In addition, she is committed to expanding healthcare access and supports sustainable initiatives such as solar systems and water tanks to improve people’s quality of life in the long term. In the future, she would like to place greater emphasis on promoting rehabilitation and therapeutic care.

Graduate of the Bachelor’s program in Occupational Therapy.

Tea Nikic’s mission is to ensure that sustainable fuels actually work—within the system, on the market, and under real-world regulatory conditions. That’s why she built a system that laid the groundwork for this: It makes sustainable raw materials and products transparent, traceable, and auditable throughout the entire value chain. Another key part of her work is sharing knowledge. She trains colleagues to further strengthen sustainability as a core competency within the company and also makes her expertise available to other companies.

Graduate of the Bachelor's program in Sustainable Management of Resources.

As a civil engineer and visible Muslim, Esma Atak resolutely counters possible prejudices. Especially in male-dominated professions like hers, she has to overcome many hurdles. With school workshops and talks in Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland, she encourages girls to take up technical professions and raises awareness of the issues of equal rights, gender pay and the dream gap. She is involved in Let's Empower Austria, Fem* and Zusammen:Österreich. "We need more skilled workers and must not leave the potential of women untapped."

Graduate of the Bachelor's degree programme in Civil Engineering and Construction and the Master's degree programme in Civil Engineering and Construction

When a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Turkey in 2023, Mercan lost six of her relatives. She responded to the sluggish aid from the Turkish authorities with a broad information campaign to raise awareness of the situation on the ground, giving interviews and writing articles for days on end. She manages a balancing act: she answers a central question from her studies despite her stressful situation, completes her Master's thesis on time and is nominated for the ORF's "Women's Award for Digitalisation and Innovation", where she makes it into the top six.

Graduate of the Master's degree programme in Digitalisation, Politics and Communication

Parents of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often face long waiting times for treatment places that are already in short supply. The fact that around 90,000 children and young people are affected throughout Austria makes it even more difficult to provide rapid therapy options. Andrea Kerschbaumer developed the ELSA app as a quick intervention with valuable information and instructions on the ADHD disorder and thus supports families in dealing with the diagnosis. More than 1,000 downloads are proof of the demand.

Graduate of the Bachelor's degree programme in Occupational Therapy and the Master's degree programme in Health Assisting Engineering

Integrating the life cycles of buildings and materials into the construction process, avoiding waste: With Liberty.Home, Markus Hörmanseder and Philipp Hüttl are focussing on sustainable construction with natural raw materials. They take their lead from nature and do not seal any floor surfaces. During their studies, they came up with the idea of financing tiny houses for homeless people by selling or renting them to companies and private individuals. Whether at festivals or in the hotel sector - the wooden buildings are well received and lead to further projects. The aim is to bring about a change in building culture: away from profit maximisation and towards maximising meaning and social added value.

Graduates of the Bachelor's degree programme in Civil Engineering and Construction

Improving healthcare and nursing care through scientific findings is important to Cornelia Feichtinger. At the Centre for Applied Nursing Research, she works on community nursing to strengthen care in communities. As a registered health and nursing professional, she looks after underserved and discriminated patients in the Breitenecker team practice, for example those with HIV infections, addictions or transgender* people. As part of the FFG's Innovator Programme and the Future Hero Award, she aims to motivate colleagues to help shape social developments.

Graduate of the Bachelor's degree programmes in Radiological Technology and Health Care and Nursing

Matthias Vostatek wants to reduce animal testing in research and work on models that represent an alternative. To this end, he is researching 3D bioprinting in order to print and cultivate organs from his own cells, which could revolutionise organ donation and drug testing. As a PhD student at the Centre for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering at the Medical University of Vienna, he is working on 3D printing for bone implants. The Future Hero Award brings him closer to his goal of creating more openness for new technologies.

Graduate of the Master's programme in Molecular Biotechnology