Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020

Fig. 4-1: Target groups, partners and stakeholders of both OSTAs
Steering Partner
Steering Committee
Ministries
Cooperation partners
Representations of other countries 
and the EUEmbassies
ASciNA
WKO’s Advantage Austria
Open Austria San Fransisco 
OeAD office in Shanghai
Beneficiaries
Researchers
Universities/research institutions
Companies and representatives (IV, WKO)
Agencies (FFG, FWF, OeAD)
Departments (Tech Transfer, Analyses)
Participating delegation trips and ARIT
General public
Media representatives
OSTA
Internal governance
Source: Sturn et al. (2019).

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Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020
satisfied with them. However, interministerial gover-
nance is proving to be a very time-consuming and 
complicated process. Both OSTAs focus on different 
work areas adapted to the relevant needs at the lo-
cation. While Washington is focused on supporting 
and supervising Austrian scientists and organising 
the annual network event ARIT, OSTA Beijing focuss-
es mainly on bilateral RTI cooperation and the relat-
ed trips of the delegates (both incoming and outgo-
ing). The financing ministerial departments have dif-
ferent portfolios and associated expectations and it 
was not possible for the OSTAs to meet all of them. 
Based on these findings, a reduction in effort and 
a greater flexibility in the current design was recom-
mended. To achieve this, the evaluation set out a 
number of recommendations:
• clearer positioning, definition of the goals, agenda 
and strategic direction;
• improve connectivity in Austria;
• define cooperation with and demarcation from the 
foreign trade centres;
• optimise reporting procedures and introduce plan-
ning horizons covering multiple years;
• reduce operating effort on all sides.