The current revolution of AI, which is about to change our world in all areas of life, is determined by an unprecedented speed of translation of basic academic research into immediate applications in real life. The recent events surrounding the crisis triggered by COVID-19 have triggered a real boom in the successful implementation of AI and ML methods in virology and epidemiology, but also, for example, in economic research and other fields. This shows the universal applicability and superiority of the underlying AI and machine learning (ML) technologies. 

Already more than a year ago, the Austrian University Conference (uniko), together with a spontaneously founded working group, drew up a position paper with concrete and comprehensive measures to strengthen Austria as a research location and called for their timely implementation in order to further strengthen Austria's competence in the field of AI and ML and, above all, to anchor Austria as a research location in the international AI community, in particular in the European networks ELLIS and CLAIRE.