Gaining new scientific insights into the multisystem disease ME/CFS—this is the goal of the WE&ME Foundation. Thanks to the WE&ME Award, granted through the FWF’s alpha+ Foundation, epidemiologist Matthias Wielscher of the Medical University of Vienna is able to investigate why the disease does not progress the same way for everyone. The WE&ME Foundation is providing 450,000 euros for this project. In addition, the FWF is funding three other ME/CFS projects in Vienna and Innsbruck with 1.3 million euros.
The WE&ME Award , presented for the first time, is one of Austria’s most generously endowed privately funded research prizes, with a prize of 450,000 euros, and supports basic research into the multisystem disease ME/CFS. In a competitive selection process based on reviews by international experts, epidemiologist Matthias Wielscher and three other researchers stood out. Wielscher’s project will receive the WE&ME Award and will be funded by a 450,000-euro donation from the WE&ME Foundation to the alpha+ Foundation. In addition, the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) is funding three other research projects on ME/CFS with a total of 1.3 million euros.
“We are very pleased to receive support from the WE&ME Foundation and the FWF. This funding gives us the opportunity to continue advancing our genetic research on ME/CFS. Our goal is to better understand genetically distinct subgroups of the disease and thereby lay the groundwork for more precise diagnostics and future personalized treatment approaches,” said Matthias Wielscher regarding the WE&ME Award.
“We chose Matthias Wielscher’s project because, for us, recognizing the heterogeneity of this disease is a central focus of current biomedical research on ME/CFS, and because the lack of patient stratification prevents consistent study results—and thus also targeted therapies. Genetic studies and correlations enable more precise subtyping with the goal of deciphering different disease mechanisms and, as a result, providing starting points for diagnostics and therapies. “The necessary international networking and collaboration with the largest genetic dataset for ME/CFS (DecodeME)—whose sequencing is supported, among others, by WE&ME—is also a key component of this project,” said Gabriele Ströck of the WE&ME Foundation regarding the selection of the WE&ME Award.
“Behind every research question regarding ME/CFS are people whose lives have been fundamentally altered by this serious illness. It severely limits the lives of thousands of people affected by it, while at the same time still raising many scientific questions. This award-winning project lays an important foundation for better understanding the biological causes of the disease and developing new approaches to diagnosis and treatment. “I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to the WE&ME Foundation for its extraordinary commitment. Together with the FWF, we are enabling research that creates concrete prospects for those affected,” said Science Minister Eva-Maria Holzleitner.
“These new projects demonstrate that it is possible to use private donations to the alpha+ Foundation to expand excellent basic research and, in this specific case, to improve our understanding of ME/CFS. I would like to extend my special thanks to the WE&ME Foundation for its extraordinary commitment on behalf of thousands of patients. Partnerships between public funding agencies and private foundations create additional opportunities to facilitate scientific progress where it is most urgently needed,” said FWF Vice President and alpha+ Board Member Ursula Jakubek.
“I am very pleased that two additional research projects on ME/CFS are getting underway at MedUni Vienna. Partners such as the WE&ME Foundation are making an important contribution to advancing research in this field. They are creating additional opportunities to study a disease that we still need to understand much better,” said Markus Müller, Rector of the Medical University of Vienna.
WE&ME Award: Unraveling Biological Differences in ME/CFS
ME/CFS is a highly heterogeneous condition. Patients differ not only in their symptoms but likely also in the biological mechanisms underlying their condition. However, when all affected individuals are studied together, these different disease mechanisms overlap. This makes it more difficult to identify genetic causes and develop new therapeutic approaches.
With the WE&ME Award, Matthias Wielscher and Kathryn Hoffmann, as a co-investigator, will examine this heterogeneity from two different perspectives under the title “Mechanistic Endotypes in ME/CFS” and use their findings to identify biologically meaningful subgroups of patients.
The first approach is based on clinical data. Here, the team analyzes symptoms, comorbidities, treatment attempts, and questionnaire data from large patient cohorts. The goal is to identify patients who exhibit similar disease courses or combinations of symptoms.
The second approach uses genetic data. In this approach, the researchers do not look at individual genes, but rather combine many genetic variants into genetic mechanism scores. Each of these scores describes the genetic influence on a specific biological process, such as inflammatory responses, autoimmunity, disturbances in energy production, or the intestinal barrier. In this way, individual biological profiles are created. It is expected that some affected individuals will show a stronger genetic influence on inflammatory processes, while in others, genetic variations associated with autoimmunity or impairments in vascular or barrier function will dominate. These patterns are then analyzed to identify genetically defined subgroups of ME/CFS.
A key focus of the project is comparing these two approaches. The goal is to investigate whether clinically defined and genetically defined subgroups corroborate one another, thereby enabling a better understanding of the biological diversity of ME/CFS. Finally, we will search for these newly defined subgroups in the world’s largest genetic dataset for ME/CFS (DecodeME) to conduct new genome-wide analyses. Matthias Wielscher expects that this will reveal genetic associations that have remained hidden in previous analyses due to the high degree of heterogeneity. In the long term, this improved understanding of the different disease mechanisms could help develop more precise diagnostic tools and identify new targets for targeted therapies or the repurposing of already approved medications.
The project builds on the findings of a research project by Matthias Wielscher, which was funded in 2024 by the WE&ME Foundation and the Vienna Science, Research, and Technology Fund (WWTF).
An additional 1.3 million euros for ME/CFS projects from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
In addition to Matthias Wielscher’s project, which is made possible by a private donation from the WE&ME Foundation to the alpha+ Foundation, three other projects were selected in the FWF review process based on their quality and level of innovation: Mirjam Bachler from the Medical University of Innsbruck with the project “Individualized Therapeutic Approaches for ME/CFS-PAIS with PEM, ” Lilian Konicar from the Medical University of Vienna with the project “INSPIRE: Individualized Neurotherapy for CFS/ME–PEM,” and Katharina Ledebur from the Complexity Science Hub Vienna with the project “TRACK-PEM: Assessment and Analysis of Post-Exertional Malaise.” These three projects are funded by the FWF with a total of 1.3 million euros.
About the WE&ME Foundation
The WE&ME Foundation (formerly the TEMPI Foundation) was founded in 2020 by Gabriele and Gerhard Ströck and is based in Vienna. The Ströck family’s journey has been profoundly shaped by the impact of ME/CFS, which has defined the nature and purpose of the WE&ME Foundation with unwavering determination. Two of their three sons are affected by ME/CFS. The WE&ME Foundation is committed to supporting basic research in the field of ME/CFS. It aims to bring together and consolidate knowledge from research, medicine, and patient experience, and to raise broad awareness so that the necessary patient care can be achieved. Further information can be found at weandmecfs.org.
The WE&ME Foundation will continue its commitment to basic research in the future and will support additional biomedical projects in collaboration with the WWTF. The Consolidation Call ( 2 million euros), which builds on the first round, will be awarded at the end of 2026 and will begin in the first quarter of 2027. The“We&Me Projects”call (totaling 2 million euros), funded by the WE&ME Foundation and coordinated by the WWTF—which is aimed primarily at international researchers—also incorporates the perspectives of patients on the jury through the“Science for ME”patient forum. The call for proposals opened in June 2026.
About the alpha+ Charitable Foundation of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
As the first publicly funded research funding agency in Europe, the FWF established the alpha+ Foundation, a nonprofit foundation, to use philanthropy to open up more opportunities for Austrian researchers in basic research. The goal is to establish new research awards aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and to support the scientific careers of highly talented early-career researchers. Currently, the FWF funds research projects totaling 2.5 million euros per year through private donations.
About the Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
The Austrian Science Fund (FWF ) is Austria’s leading organization for the open-topic funding of basic research and artistic-scientific research.
Through an international peer-review process, the FWF supports researchers and ideas that are groundbreaking due to their scientific quality. The insights gained strengthen Austria as a research nation and lay a broad foundation for better addressing future societal challenges.
Questions and Contact Information
Katharina Okulski
alpha+ Foundation of the FWF
+43 676 83487 8102
katharina.okulski@fwf.ac.at
Ulla Epler
WE&ME Foundation
+43 676 336 4896
ulla.epler@weandmemecfs.org
