The Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) in Klosterneuburg is a research institute with its own degree-awarding powers. The institute, which opened in 2009, is dedicated to basic research in the natural sciences, mathematics, and computer science. ISTA employs professors under a tenure-track model, as well as postdoctoral researchers and PhD students in its international graduate school. In addition to its commitment to the principle of basic research, which is driven purely by scientific curiosity the institute holds rights to all resulting discoveries and promotes their exploitation.
At ISTA, over 80 research groups are conducting research in the fields of mathematics, computer science, physics, chemistry, neuroscience, biology, as well as earth sciences and astrophysics. ISTA encompasses both theoretical and experimental research groups.