Story of VIPER
The Vienna Institute for Political Economy Research was founded on 10th of February 2011 in Vienna (Austria). It is a registered scientific association ("eingetragener Verein") according to Austrian law. VIPER has organized the International Conference 'Schumpeter's Heritage - The Evolution of the Theory of Evolution' with more than 300 participants in October 2011. This conference combined the Annual Conference of the European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy (EAEPE), participants from the International Schumpeter Society (ISS), from the Verein für Socialpolitik (evolutorischer Ausschuss), and the Institut Wiener Kreis.
In 2013 VIPER (with the help of the Austrian Chamber of Labour) organized the large international workshop 'Metamorphosis of Europe', which brought together participants from 10 different European countries.
In 2015 another international workshop "Metamorphosis of Europe - 2" organized by VIPER (sponsored by the Austrian National Bank, the Austrian Chamber of Labour, and the Jean Monnet Initiative of the EU) followed. This event was completely video documented here.
 
   

Official Mission Statement of VIPER
§2 Zweck "Der Verein, dessen Tätigkeit nicht auf Gewinn gerichtet ist, bezweckt die Durchführung und Förderung von technisch- wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Forschungsarbeiten sowie die Organisation und Durchführung von technisch- wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Vorträgen, Kongressen und ähnlichen Veranstaltungen. Dabei wird insbesondere auf Themen zur Integration Europas im Rahmen der Europäischen Union Bezug genommen."

VIPER thus is a non-profit organisation, which combines a transdisciplinary approach (concerning technical as well as economic research) with a focus on European integration.