CSIR promotes international S&T networking with a belief that sharing of knowledge is like international trade; both parties benefit and the total amount of knowledge exchanged is greater than the sum of knowledge actually exchanged. ISTAD plays a key role to foster and expand CSIR’s international partnerships by initiating new cooperation tools with leading international agencies across the globe, managing / supporting collaborative projects, joint / international workshops and conferences, training programs and facilitating networking through scientific visits of CSIR delegations / scientists abroad and of foreign delegations / researchers to CSIR and its research institutes.

International S&T cooperation activities of ISTAD could be divided into three broad categories, viz i) Bilateral and Multilateral Cooperation; ii) International Benchmarking through Awards and Fellowships to International Peers; and iii) Human Resource Capacity Building through international exposure to CSIR scientists and technologists.