Submit Your COST Action Proposal to contribute towards the Advancement and Development of Europe!

Deadline: 7 September 2017

European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) is currently inviting participants to submit proposals for COST Actions contributing to the scientific, technological, economic, cultural or societal knowledge advancement and development of Europe.

The open call Action Proposal Submission, Evaluation, Selection and Approval (SESA) procedure  is fully science and technology-driven and will ensure a simple, transparent and competitive proposal evaluation and selection process, reflecting the bottom-up, open and inclusive principles of COST.

Programme Objectives

• Encouraging and enabling researchers from less research-intensive countries across Europe to set up or join COST Actions. These countries are denominated Inclusiveness Target Countries (ITC) and fulfil the Horizon 2020 widening eligibility condition, being either an EU Member State or Associated Country to the EU Framework programme;
• Counterbalancing research communities’ unequal access to knowledge, infrastructures, funding and resources;
• Providing a strong means to increase the visibility and integration of researchers to the leading knowledge hubs of Europe, as well as to acquire their necessary leadership skills, regardless of their location, age or gender;
• Smoothly contributing to trigger structural changes in the national research systems of COST Members;
• Identifying excellence across Europe to contribute to Horizon 2020 widening objectives.

Activity Areas

In order to achieve its mission, COST provides support for activities such as:

• the development of European-based scientific and technological networks in any scientific or interdisciplinary domain;
• the exploitation of the research outcomes by integrating all stakeholders, thereby intensifying the links between the scientific communities, the enterprises, the policy makers and the society;
• the dissemination of results of such research activities in order to improve their scientific, social and economic impact;
• the provision for collaboration opportunities to all researchers in order to employ all talented and creative human resources available in Europe overcoming the bottlenecks linked to geographic location, age or gender;
• the facilitation of the international collaboration of the European research networks, thereby increasing their efficiency, effectiveness and impact at global level;
• the appropriate further developments for the European Cooperation in Science and Technology in the context of the European Research Area based on European and global developments.

Eligibility Criteria

COST Actions are open to all researchers, engineers and scholars or other stakeholders, who are committed to work and achieve the Action objectives and are affiliated to a legal entity. Action Participants are defined as being any person being an Action MC member, an Action MC substitute, an Action MC Observer, a Working Group member or an ad-hoc participant:

• Action MC members: up to two representatives for each COST Full or Cooperating Member may be nominated to the COST Action MC by the COST National Coordinator (CNC), once the MoU of the Action has been accepted by the COST Member. The role of Action MC members is to pro-actively participate in the implementation and decision-making activities in the Action. Action MC members have voting rights within the Action MC: decisions are made by simple majority, with one vote per COST Full or Cooperating Member. The nomination of Action MC members is a national prerogative and follows national procedures.
• Action MC substitutes: up to three representatives for each COST Full Member and/or Cooperating Member may be nominated to the COST Action MC by the CNC, once the MoU of the Action has been accepted by the COST Member. The role of Action MC substitutes is to replace, where necessary, an Action MC member with approval of the Action Chair.
• MC Observers: Action Participants affiliated to COST Partner Members having accepted the MoU, to Approved Institutions based in NNCs and IPCs, to the European Commission, EU bodies, offices or agencies, International Organisations, or European RTD Organisations may be present at the Action MC as MC Observers. Their role is to observe the Action decisionmaking processes on behalf of their institution of affiliation. They have no voting rights, but they may participate in discussions related to Action MC decisions.
• WG members: Action Participants appointed by the Action MC in this regard. Their role is to contribute to the achievement of the Action objectives through their participation in WG.
• Ad hoc Participants: Individuals selected, as necessary, by the Action MC to contribute to the COST Action activities towards the achievement of the COST Action Objectives. Ad hoc participants can be STSM grantees, trainees and trainers in Training Schools, and invited speakers at COST Action Workshops and Conferences.

How to Apply

• Proposals shall be submitted by a network of proposers, represented by a Main Proposer affiliated to an institution located in a COST Full or Cooperating Member, or affiliated to a European RTD organisation.
• Proposals must be submitted online via given website.

For more information, please visit COST Action.