The New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR) is a state agency charged with growing New York State's leadership position in high technology research and economic development. A central element of NYSTAR's mission is the recognition that New York's public and private research universities and academic centers can be powerful economic development engines.

NYSTAR is responsible for development and oversight of the eight Strategically Targeted Academic Research (STAR) Centers and five Advanced Research Centers (ARCs), which play a critical role in the state's plan to expand high-tech research and economic development, attract world-class scientific researchers to New York, and create new technology-based jobs and businesses across the State.

NYSTAR is also responsible for 15 Centers for Advanced Technology (CATs), a statewide network of cooperative research and developments centers among private universities, private industry and state government. Through these, researchers at New York's leading universities work side-by-side with their counterparts at large and small companies to develop and commercialize new technologies. NYSTAR's 10 Regional Technology Development Centers (RTDCs), formerly known as Technology Development Organizations, are part of the national NIST network. RTDCs provide business planning, access to venture capital, product development, marketing, manufacturing and quality systems, engineering, and information technology.

Under NYSTAR's direction, the New York State Science and Technology Law Center conducts legal research, and assists academic institutions, early stage and start-up technology companies, with reduced-cost legal consultation and services critical to research, product development and distribution, and business development.

NYSTAR's programs support construction and reconstruction of research and development facilities at public and private universities across the state, provide grants to designated CATs to enhance and expand their activities, provide grants to assist colleges and universities in attracting and retaining the best research faculty, support the efforts of colleges and universities to commercialize high-technology innovations; and serve as a resource for small and start-up technology companies.