AGES - OSTERREICHISCHE AGENTUR FUR GESUNDHEIT UND ERNAHRUNGSSICHERHEIT GMBH

Their core work

AGES is Austria's federal agency for health and food safety, operating at the intersection of public health protection, food chain security, and agricultural sciences. They conduct risk assessments, regulatory testing, and surveillance across food safety, animal health, plant health, and human medicine — functioning as Austria's official authority for zoonoses monitoring, pesticide regulation, vaccine quality control, and plant variety certification. In EU research, they contribute applied regulatory science expertise, real-world monitoring data, and field-testing infrastructure that bridges laboratory research and policy implementation.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In 2015–2018, AGES focused broadly on environmental policy interfaces (INSPIRATION), human biomonitoring (HBM4EU), nutrient management (FATIMA), and vaccine quality control (VAC2VAC) — reflecting their mandate as a generalist safety authority. From 2019 onward, their portfolio shifted decisively toward sustainable crop production, plant health, and pest management (FF-IPM, INVITE, ADAPT, SusCrop), with a notable new entry into digital pharmaceutical standards (UNICOM). The recent period shows a sharper agricultural focus with keywords like "modelling," "sustainability," "breeding," and "integrated pest management" replacing the earlier environmental and chemical exposure themes.

AGES is concentrating on climate-adaptive agriculture and plant health — expect them to seek partnerships in pest modelling, stress-tolerant crops, and sustainable farming systems.

How they like to work

AGES has never coordinated an H2020 project — they consistently join as a participant (14 times) or third party (5 times), contributing specialized regulatory and testing expertise rather than leading research agendas. With 524 unique consortium partners across 42 countries, they operate in large, multi-national consortia typical of European Joint Programmes and ERA-NETs. This makes them a reliable, low-risk partner who brings official national authority credibility and real-world regulatory data to any consortium.

Extensively networked across 42 countries with 524 unique consortium partners, reflecting their participation in large-scale European Joint Programmes (One Health EJP, HBM4EU, EJP SOIL). Their network spans all of Europe with no narrow geographic bias, making them a connector to the broader Austrian and Central European research ecosystem.

What sets them apart

AGES is not a university lab — it is Austria's official national authority for health and food safety, which means they bring regulatory weight, official surveillance data, and policy-level access that academic partners cannot. Their dual strength in both plant health (pest management, variety testing) and human health (food safety, biomonitoring, vaccine testing) makes them uniquely positioned for One Health and farm-to-fork research where the entire food chain must be covered. For consortium builders, having AGES on board signals regulatory credibility and access to Austria's national reference laboratory infrastructure.

Highlights from their portfolio

• UNICOM
  Their largest single grant (EUR 1.5M) and a strategic pivot into digital health — standardizing global medicine identification across EU systems.
• One Health EJP
  EUR 668K in a flagship European Joint Programme on foodborne zoonoses and antimicrobial resistance — directly aligned with their core national mandate.
• FF-IPM
  EUR 357K tackling fruit fly invasion under climate change — represents their growing strength in pest management and biosecurity modelling.