[2] The Wittgenstein-Preis, the highest Austrian science award, is given out by the Austrian Science Fund, and Lutz (who was the first social scientist to win it) used the 1.5 million euro prize money to establish the Centre by teaming up several existing demographic research institutions in and around Vienna which had been cooperating before but not under the umbrella of a common concern.
The Centre’s objective is to provide a sound scientific basis for decision-making at various levels by better understanding the implications of changing population structures and human capital investments for the well-being of mankind under a global perspective.
[3] There are some 60 researchers and 10 administrative staff members working at the Wittgenstein Centre in one of the three pillar institutions, two of which have been joined under a common roof since August 2015 when VID moved from its old premises in Vienna's 4th district to a new location on the WU campus in the 2nd district adjacent to the Vienna Prater: an additional campus building (D5) at Welthandelsplatz 2 now houses (on two levels) both the new Vienna Institute of Demography and the two relevant WU research groups next to each other, linked by the Demographenstiege (demographers' staircase).
On 9 September 2015, the Centre celebrated its first five years, together with the 40th anniversaries of IIASA and VID, with a symposium on "Demography that Matters".
[4][5] The Wittgenstein Centre applies multidisciplinary research to the analysis of human capital and population dynamics, assessing the effects of these forces on long-term human well-being and focusing on the following research themes: Recent research results of the Centre’s scientists, in particular on educational attainment by age and sex in 195 countries but also on trends in fertility, mortality, migration, and educational level for the world’s regions are summarized in a 2014 Oxford University Press publication edited by Wolfgang Lutz, William P. Butz and Samir KC: World Population and Human Capital in the Twenty-First Century.