The Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) receives €5 million donation for AI research

Uber co-founder Garrett Camp's first gift to a European institute shows ISTA’s global appeal

2026-01-24

(Press-News.org) The Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) has received a donation of 5 million euros from Canadian philanthropist and entrepreneur Garrett Camp to help advance AI as a trustworthy, human-centered technology that benefits society. ISTA’s commitment to responsible AI, coupled with its focus on frontier research and interdisciplinary culture, make it perfectly placed to pursue this goal.

Camp – who is the creator of the not-for-profit Camp.org research organization and co-founder of the ride-hailing Uber app – visited the ISTA campus on January 13 to sign the donation agreement with President Martin Hetzer and Managing Director Georg Schneider.

“With this generous gift, ISTA can further build upon fundamental research in artificial intelligence, drawing on our strengths in computer science, mathematics, and the natural sciences,” said Hetzer. “It helps us pursue AI research within a broad, interdisciplinary scientific context, deepen our understanding of how these systems work, and address their limitations. It is essential for developing robust and trustworthy AI systems that deliver long-term value for both science and society.”

Investment in future breakthroughs

For Camp, the ISTA donation reflects a belief that the next generation of AI breakthroughs will come from ecosystems that prioritize rigor, collaboration, and long-term impact over short-term speed. His current focus is centered around facilitating AI development that helps people thrive around the world.

“Global solutions demand global perspectives and collaboration,” said Camp. “Supporting ISTA is about investing in a community that unites brilliant minds from around the world to further advance trustworthy AI in harmony with humanity and helps to ensure that innovation continues to grow with integrity, transparency, and respect for human values." Camp has a history of supporting non-profit organizations focused on building responsible and trustworthy AI technology. However, the ISTA gift represents his first contribution to a European research institution.

"We are thrilled to have played a role in helping bring these two institutions together,” said Niklas Schmidt of Wolf Theiss Attorneys-at-Law. “Camp's donation acknowledges the excellence of the Austrian research landscape."

ISTA as AI hub

ISTA’s work in AI is wide-ranging and focuses on building systems that are reliable, efficient and scientifically grounded. Key areas include trustworthy AI, with researchers such as Christoph Lampert and his team striving for principled solutions rather than just bug fixes while seeking to make AI safer, as well as more robust, fair and respectful of data privacy.

Sustainable AI is another ISTA focus, with research led by Dan Alistarh aimed at making AI models more resource-efficient and broadly accessible. Francesco Locatello and his team work on causal AI aimed at helping AI systems learn how causes lead to effects, how actions change outcomes and how data they encounter can shift over time.

At ISTA, AI is also closely integrated with other research fields. That includes experimentally aware AI for protein structure prediction. In this area, Alex Bronstein, in collaboration with Paul Schanda, developed a method to ‘guide’ the AlphaFold3 AI model to match experimental data. Monika Henzinger meanwhile pursues work on the privacy-preserving training of large language models while Marco Mondelli and his group have developed rigorous methods for exploiting massive datasets and solving complex inference problems.

Bolstered by the donation, these and other ISTA researchers including Krishnendu Chatterjee, Thomas Henzinger, and Matthew Robinson will continue to contribute to AI research that is both scientifically robust and socially responsible.

“We greatly value this transatlantic vote of confidence in ISTA’s research mission and in our role in shaping the future of AI,” Hetzer said.

Since opening its doors in 2009, ISTA has attracted scientists from around the world who carry out foundational research spanning the natural sciences, mathematics and computer science across roughly 90 groups, with that number expected to increase to 150 over the next decade.

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The Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) receives €5 million donation for AI research

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