The funds which have been spent in 1981 by the Federal Ministry for Science and Research for space research and technology amounted to about U.S. $4 million. Less than half of this amount has been spent for ESA programmes; the remaining part has been invested directly in activities of national institutions. The Federal Ministry for Science and Research is preparing a general plan for scientific research in Austria during the 1980s, which should serve as a guideline for the Austrian government. As an input to this plan, a project team consisting of representatives of the government, scientific and industrial institutions as well as of users of satellite data, has prepared a medium term programme for space activities in Austria. The main points of this programme are as follow: • giving a status report on present space activities in Austria; • indicating the future possibilities; • providing a basis for the decision makers; • establishing priorities and recommendations. Such a programme plan should help to streamline the Austrian space activities and to avoid making nd hoc pragmatic decisions. The status report is already very encouraging: Space Science groups are active in the fields of solar system and planetary exploration, geodesy, astrophysics as well as material and life sciences. User groups are concerned with communication satellites as well as remote sensing and meteorological satellite data. Finally, about 20 industrial firms are interested in working in the field of space technology. Thus, it is hoped that space research becomes a major theme in the general plan for scientific research in Austria. The political interest in space research and technology and the promotion of cooperation in this field between developed and developing countries is ever increasing. This is particularly valid for UNISPACE 82. ASSA was strongly involved in the preparation for the UNISPACE Forum, an experts meeting jointly organized by COSPAR and IAF to precede the main conference. The main purpose of this event was a dialogue between scientists and engineers of industrialized and developing countries to discuss and elaborate the concepts contained in the Background Papers prepared by COSPAR and IAF. Needless to say the UNISPACE Forum became a real success and provided an efficient input to the main conference. As a conclusion, it should be stated that for a small country like Austria, it is not only an opportunity to participate on space activities, it is really an obligation.
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