Regarding its sociolinguistic scope of research, the research unit Linguistics strongly collaborates with the SFB German in Austria. Variation – Contact – Perception. The SFB German in Austria is a large-scale project financed by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF F60). It consists of eight different project parts, significantly involving the universities of Vienna, Graz and Salzburg as well as the ÖAW. The central aims of the SFB German in Austria include in-depth and comprehensive analyses on variation and change of the German language in Austria on all kinds of linguistic levels (such as, e.g., phonology, lexis, syntax etc.).

Collaborative efforts of both the research unit Linguistics and the SFB German in Austria include the development of the digital research platform Linguae Austriacae – Platform and Information system on Language(s) in Austria (LAPIS). Amongst other, this platform will ensure both long-term and online availability of the data collected by the SFB German in Austria for (also external) research projects.

Further collaboration with the SFB German in Austria (in the field of lexis) includes the TOP Citizen Science Project The ABC of dialects: Exploring historical notes digitally. Other projects, such as the DWA Austria pilot study and Austrian dialect cartography, could already be successfully realized and finalized.

In addition, there is institutional collaboration on aspects and representations of multilingualism. This includes the first sociolinguistic-oriented survey on representative basis for Austria, which was realized in the project Aspects of (multi-)lingualism in Austria: competence – usage – attitudes. The currently ongoing project Vienna – different and multi.lingual: A sociolinguistic survey on linguistic competence, language use and language attitudes of Viennese inhabitants ties into these results, focusing on allochthonous minorities and minority languages in Vienna.