"The Vienna Region": More Than a Metropolis and its Surroundings.
Federal capital of Austria, 
Vienna makes up with its ca. 1.6 million inhabitants the administrative, economic and cultural centre of Austria.
Vienna is also the centre of the Vienna region (Vienna, Lower Austria and the Burgenland) and the "Centrope" region which stretches to Brno (Czech Republic) in the north, to Bratislava (Slovakia) and Györ (Hungary) in the east and Wiener Neustadt and Sankt Pölten (both Austria) in the south and west. This means that the city is the centre and hub of a dynamic administrative and economic area incorporating some 5 million inhabitants.
Vienna is the most important centre of learning not only in the region, but in the whole of Austria:
The University of Vienna (Universität Wien), founded in 1365 is Central Europe’s oldest university, and with 63.000 students, one of its largest. With regard to the area of Information and Communication Technology, the most important faculties are those of Economic Science and Information Technology, Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Law.
Of the around 16.000 students enrolled at the Vienna University of Technology (Technische Universität Wien), some 5.000 study Information Technology, 1.500 Information Systems. Those faculties close to ICT are those of Information Technology, as well as Mathematics, Geoinformation, Electronic and Computer Engineering.
A total of twelve departments of the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration (Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien) are of great importance to the ICT-business: Information Processing and Process Management, Business Administration and Innovation, Management, Marketing, Business Law, Employment Law and Social Law, Public Law, Tax Law et al. There are presently some 20.000 students at the university.
In addition to this there are six further universities in Vienna: University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences (Universität für Bodenkultur), The University of Applied Arts Vienna (Universität für angewandte Kunst), University for Music and Performing Arts (Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst), the Academy of Fine Arts (Akademie der bildenden Künste), the Medical University of Vienna (Medizinische Universität Wien) and the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna (Veterinärmedizinische Universität).
The Austrian Academy of Sciences (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften) is also based in Vienna.
The four universities of applied sciences (Fachhochschule) presently in Vienna are:
- University of Applied Sciences of bfi Wien (Fachhochschule des bfi Wien)
- FH campus Wien University of Applied Science (FH campus wien)
- University of Applied Sciences for Communications and Business Management, Vienna (FHW-Fachhochschul-Studiengänge der Wiener Wirtschaft)
- The University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien (Fachhochschule Technikum Wien)
They offer important practical, technical and economic courses for the ICT sector
- Banking and Finance (Bank- und Finanzwirtschaft)
- Electronic Information Services (Elektronische Informationsdienste)
- Embedded Systems
- European Economy and Business Management (Europäische Wirtschaft und Unternehmensführung)
- Tax Structure (Finanz-, Rechnungs- & Steuerwesen)
- Industrial Electronics
- Information and Communication Syterms and Services (Informations- und Kommunikationssysteme und -dienste)
- Information Management and Computer Security (Informationsmanagement und Computersicherheit)
- Information Technology and Telecommunications (Informationstechnologien und Telekommunikation)
- Marketing & Sales
- Multimedia and Software Development (Multimedia und Software-Entwicklung)
- Project Management and Information Technology (Projektmanagement und Informationstechnik)
- Technical Project and Process Management (Technisches Projekt- und Prozessmanagement)
- Telecommunications and Internet Technologies (Telekommunikation und Internet-Technologien)
- Business Administration/Management (Unternehmensführung/ Management)
- Business Information Technology (Wirtschaftsinformatik)
- Knowledge Management (Wissensmanagement)
The following ICT research facilities are based in Vienna: ACV - Advanced Computer Vision, Austrian Research Centers, EC3 - E-Commerce Competence Center, the Telecommunications Research Centre, Vienna (ftw - Forschungszentrum Telekommunikation Wien) , the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften), Centre for Virtual Reality and Visualisierung (VRVis) and Arsenal Research.