Since 2013, Friedrich Faulhammer has been rector of the University for Continuing Education Krems (Danube University Krems). Before that, he was head of section and secretary-general at the Federal Ministry of Science and Research, positions in which he played a key role in shaping the Austrian and European higher education policy over a period of more than two decades, for instance in implementing the Universities Act of 2002.
Born in 1963, Faulhammer studied law in Vienna. The institute for legal history at the University of Vienna and the legal department of the university directorate were his posts from 1985 to 1990. In the 1990s, he joined the Federal Ministry of Science and Research and in 2005, he became head of the higher education section in the Federal Ministry of Science and Research and has been its secretary-general since 2009. In 2017 and 2018, Faulhammer served as president of the Danube Rectors' Conference (DRC), a network consisting of about 70 universities located in the countries of the Danube region. In 2018, he was elected to the board of directors of the Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft (LBG) and in 2019 to the board of the Institute for the Danube
Region and Central Europe (IDM).
At present, he is chairman of the IDM board as well as a university board member of the University College of Teacher Education Vienna, the Verein für deutsches undinternationales Wissenschaftsrecht e. V. Münster and on the advisory board of the Europa Forum Wachau. Since January 2023, Friedrich Faulhammer has again been president of the Danube Rectors' Conference.