Story of success : founding the Austrian Association of Occupational Science during the corona pandemic

Rationale: Occupational science is well established on an international level. However, the progression of occupational science as a scientific discipline varies across Europe, it is still a (r)evolving discipline. A need to strengthen national occupational science activities was identified previously. We aimed to found the Austrian Association of Occupational Science (AOS) to foster the development of occupational science in Austria. Methods: Volunteer work, co-creation and innovation fostering, project management and team building was used to found AOS. Due to the Corona pandemic, all activities occurred virtual exclusively. Massive user involvement of Austrian occupational therapists and researchers was used to define AOS aims, scope, and activities to promote occupational science in Austria. The process of founding AOS will be presented and discussed. Results: Steps to found a new occupational science association were defined. These included searching for people who support the start-up project, finding advocates for the foundation of AOS, acquiring funding, creating conditions to fulfil the legal framework for the establishment of an association, searching potential board members, team building, establishment of AOS as a legal entity, organising the general assembly including board election, developing AOS strategy, and defining tasks, responsibilities and projects. Activities were implemented, finally AOS was founded in 2020, first initiatives and projects started. Conclusion: The presented steps of founding AOS are an example process for establishing a national occupational science association, and serves as good practice for similar initiatives. The foundation of national occupational science association contributes to fostering occupational r-evolution all over the world.