ISTA and Google Forge Long-Term Research Partnership in Klosterneuburg
The Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) in Klosterneuburg and global technology giant Google have signed a far-reaching Master Sponsored Research Agreement to consolidate their existing collaboration and jointly advance innovative scientific research projects. This long-term partnership, which also includes financial support for research projects from Google, aims to further strengthen the ecosystem at the ISTA campus and open up new avenues in science.
Global technology giant Google has entered into a research partnership with the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) in Klosterneuburg, Austria. / Picture: © Wikimedia Commons / The Pancake of Heaven! [CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]
The collaboration focuses on forward-looking areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), algorithms, and novel imaging techniques for medical research. A physical Google location in the xista science park, directly opposite the ISTA campus, will serve as a link between the American corporation, ISTA's basic researchers, and the startups in the xista ecosystem.
Martin Hetzer, President of ISTA, emphasized the importance of this alliance: “Since our founding over 15 years ago, close ties to society and the economy have been a central part of our mission. We are very pleased that the ecosystem of our campus will now be further strengthened through collaboration with and the presence of Google.”
Markus Wanko, Managing Director of xista, the institute's tech transfer arm, highlighted the synergies: “In this collaboration, we are combining Google's leading industry expertise, resources, and innovative strength with ISTA's academic strength, research capabilities, and agility. xista's innovation ecosystem serves as the perfect docking station.”
Lizzie Dorfman, Product Lead for Science at Google Research, explained the partnership with ISTA's unique focus: "ISTA, with its strong emphasis on unconventional and interdisciplinary thinking covering many areas of natural sciences, mathematics, and computer science, is a good fit for such a research agreement with Google. We have achieved great success in our previous collaborations and are delighted to consolidate and expand our cooperation through this agreement."
Ongoing projects within the framework of the cooperation include research into the efficiency of AI by Professor Dan Alistarh, who is working with Google on model and data compression. Professor Monika Henzinger and her research group are dedicated to developing algorithms and differential privacy to ensure the protection of personal data when training large language models. Professor Francesco Locatello is investigating how visual language models can improve the interpretation of climate data and probability forecasts in science.
Another highlight of the collaboration is the development of new light microscopy methods by Professor Johann Danzl and his team. These methods enable the detailed reconstruction of brain tissue with all neural connections and provide richer information than electron microscopy. The computer-assisted analysis of this complex data is carried out in collaboration with Google Research, which holds enormous potential for biomedical research. Just recently, in May 2025, the LICONN method, which was developed in this collaboration, was presented by Google Research and ISTA, making brain mapping more accessible with widely used light microscopes.
The Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), which currently hosts 90 research groups in various scientific disciplines, plans to grow to 150 research groups by 2036. The new collaboration with Google is a crucial step in supporting this growth and further increasing the international visibility and innovative strength of Austria as a research location.