Michaela Fritz has been Vice-Rector for Research and Innovation at the Medical University of Vienna since 2015. She is responsible for research strategy and funding, career development, research assessment, technology transfer, intellectual property (IP) and spin-off strategy, international relations, core facilities, and good scientific practice.

Before joining the Medical University of Vienna, she led the Health and Environment Department at the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT) and held senior roles at Life Science Austria Vienna Region and Austria Wirtschaftsservice (aws). Earlier in her career, she worked at Infineon Technologies and conducted postdoctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley.

She studied materials science and obtained her PhD from ETH Zurich. She also serves on several national and European scientific and strategic bodies, including the Board of Trustees of ISTA and the Scientific Advisory Board of the European Forum Alpbach.