Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020

4.2.2 Evaluation of OSTA Washington and 
Beijing
International cooperation has become an increasing-
ly important element in national and international 
research, technology and innovation policy in recent 
decades. Both European as well as non-European col-
laborations have been and are receiving public sup-
port in many countries as well as at the European 
level. In Austria, the establishment of both the Offic-
es of Science and Technology Austria (OSTA) in 
Washington and Beijing should be seen in the con-
text of intensified cooperation efforts. OSTA Wash-
ington was founded in 2001 and since then has been 
driven by the motivation of linking in with the USA as 
the leading research nation and of supporting the 
many Austrian researchers in the country. OSTA Bei-
jing was established in 2012 in accordance with the 
strategy “Beyond Europe – Austria’s internationalisa-
tion in research, technology and innovation” as the 
significance of the emerging research nations be-
came increasingly clear in the form of the BRICS 
countries.
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Both offices are aimed at strengthening 
bilateral relations with North America and Mexico as 
well as China and Mongolia.
Both OSTAs are based in the Austrian embassies 
and are managed by a steering committee that 
meets regularly in accordance with a joint interminis-
terial framework agreement. The steering committee 
is made up of representatives from the Federal Min-
istry for European and International Affairs, the Fed-
eral Ministry of Education, Science and Research 
(BMWF), the Federal Ministry for Digital and Eco-
nomic Affairs (BMDW) and, until the end of 2019, 
from the then Federal Ministry of Transport, Innova-
tion and Technology. 
The Centre for Social Innovation (ZSI) was ap-
pointed together with Joanneum Research GmbH to 
carry out an evaluation
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of both OSTAs in February 

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