At the end of 2020, Klement Tockner will leave the FWF to become General Director of the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research. The FWF is now searching for his successor. Since May 2016, Klement Tockner has played a key role as President in shaping the fate of the FWF. His unexpected departure comes at a time when a strong FWF is urgently needed. Though a new “Forschungsfinanzierungsgesetz” has recently passed the Austrian Parliament, it contains no information on budgeting.