International treaties and agreements
International programmes involving cooperation in research often rely on intergovernmental bilateral agreements or memoranda of understanding concluded with ministries responsible for science in other countries. These programmes fall under the category of “Scientific & Technological Cooperation” (S&T cooperation) and aim to increase cross-border research cooperation with partner countries relevant to Austria. They enable new and sustainable international partnerships for Austrian research and offer researchers a chance to gather experience in international projects and build worldwide contacts and networks, especially for researchers in the early stages of their careers.
The Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF) is currently conducting regular calls for proposals on bilateral research projects with 19 countries: Albania, Brazil, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Hungary, India, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, and Ukraine.
Every year, approximately 350 bi- and multilateral cooperation projects receive funding under the umbrella of S&T cooperation. Today, S&T cooperation budgets also fund multilateral research programmes with other EU member states in the Danube region to implement the macro-regional “EU Strategy for the Danube Region”.