Promoting and encouraging collaboration, the birth of joint projects, inter-university cooperation and cooperation between research bodies, exchanges between institutions and scientific communities in Italy and Austria: this is the mission of the important scientific diplomacy initiative, promoted by the Embassy of Italy in Austria, ASSAI, the Association for Scientific Exchanges Austria Italy, which brings together Italian academics and researchers living and working in Austria, and which was presented on 4 June at the Embassy in Vienna. The new association is the result of intense work by the Embassy, in particular thanks to the efforts of the Embassy's Scientific Attaché, Amedeo Staiano, which began at the end of 2022 on the initiative of the previous Head of Mission, Ambassador Stefano Beltrame, and continued with identical determination by Ambassador Giovanni Pugliese. Austria is a country with investments in research well in excess of 3% of GDP and in constant growth, and represents a scientific ecosystem of great attraction for Italian researchers, whose community in Austria is estimated to be the third largest after the Austrian and German communities, and thus the first non-German-speaking scientific community in the country. The event also provided an opportunity for a conversation between the Italian scientists present on the role and experience of Italian researchers in Austria and the potential of the nascent association.