In order to become EMOS-certified, Alexander Buchberger was required to complete a 6-week internship at Statistics Austria in addition to fulfilling all of the academic requirements for the JKU Master’s degree program in "Statistics", and writing his Master's thesis in the area of official statistics. His thesis titled "National Migration Flows in Upper Austria" was suggested by the Statistical Office of the Upper Austrian Government. As part of the EU EMOS project, he also took part in a one-week study visit to Eurostat in Luxembourg.

In the future, the Institute of Applied Statistics at the JKU Linz (Dept. Head: Prof. Werner Müller) looks forward to strengthening its collaboration in research and teaching with Statistik Austria based on a signed cooperation agreement to support EMOS certification. Program coordinators expect the number of students in the graduate degree program to increase.

The "European Master in Official Statistics" (EMOS) is a European Union project created to develop an educational and continual education program in official statistics as part of the framework for current graduate degree programs in Europe. At a meeting in Luxembourg at the end of May 2016, the Committee on the European Statistical System (ESSC) awarded the EMOS label to the English-language JKU Master's program "Statistics", the only degree program in Austria to be officially EMOS certified.