COST PROGRAMME

COST Association

COST Association

The European Co-operation in the Field of Scientific and Technical Research (COST) programme was first established in 1971, aiming at promoting a framework of cooperation between EU countries, through the promotion and strengthening of cooperation in the fields of scientific and technological research. COST receives funding from the EU Framework Programmes for research and innovation.

The COST programme has evolved into one of the most important initiatives for research cooperation in Europe. Along with all European Union countries, most European countries are also part of the Programme. A total of 38 counties are part of COST as full members.

COST supports the active involvement of researchers from less research-intensive COST Countries (Inclusiveness Target Countries, ITC), including Cyprus. Apart from researchers from COST member countries, also researchers from Near Neighbour Countries and International Partner Countries can also take part, based on mutual benefit.

Since 2014, the COST Association was established as the legal entity that will implement COST Activities. The COST Association funds the creation of research networks in all scientific and technological fields, in order to strengthen Europe’s capacity to address scientific, technological and societal challenges.

The COST Actions offer an international and open space for collaboration among scientists and thereby give impetus to research advancements and innovation. They contribute to the coordination of research supported by national funds, covering exclusively networking activities, such as workshops, conferences, working group meetings, training schools, short-term scientific missions and dissemination and communication activities.

COST Actions

COST Actions are networks of cooperation between researchers that do research in their own country, in the specific field of the Action. COST Actions cover all scientific and technological fields, promoting interdisciplinarity and excellence, adopting a bottom-up approach, where applicants for a new Action specify the content / field of the Action based on their interests.

Via these Actions, researchers from all stages of their career, have the opportunity to network, exchange opinions, present their scientific findings and coordinate their activities at a European level. COST Actions are open to researchers and stakeholders from academia, industry / enterprises, NGOs, the public sector etc. COST emphasises the participation of researchers coming from less research-intensive COST members, including Cyprus.

“COST Actions’ booklet” – It includes information on the COST programme, the open call for proposals, the running Actions (starting with the most recent ones), the networking tools, and the list of CNCs.

Tools

The main networking tools supported by COST are:

Meetings, workshops and conferences: these are organised by the COST Action management committee and are open to the entire scientific community.
Short-term scientific missions (STSMs): exchange visits between researchers in the network of a COST Action, which provide access to an institution or laboratory in another COST country.
Training schools: they offer training in one of the Action’s laboratories or organisations, which possesses unique equipment and/or know-how.
Dissemination activities: dissemination of research results of Action participants towards other COST Actions, the wider scientific community, policymakers, the media and society, through publications, electronic media, press releases, events, etc.
Conference grants: They support PhD students and early-career investigators from Inclusiveness Target Countries, such as Cyprus, to attend international conferences that are not organised by a COST Action.

Funding

COST covers coordination and management costs for the research networks known as COST Actions, providing funding of 134.000 Euros per annum, for 4 years. The COST programme covers the expenses of researchers for participation in meetings and other activities organised in the context of COST Actions.

COST does not fund research, but networking activities, however, research arising from COST Actions can be supported by own funds or via other Programmes (e.g. the EU Framework Programmes, national Programmes etc). It should be noted that according to 2019 statistics, the average value of spin-off projects per COST Action was 6m Euros, while the success rate of spin-off proposals submitted under Horizon 2020 has been estimated at 37% (Source: COST Annual Report 2019).

It should be noted, that RIF provides additional financial support to researchers representing Cyprus in COST Actions, in case they want to organise events in Cyprus, such as Management Committee meetings, Working Group meetings, symposia, workshops and conferences in the frame of their COST Action, as well as other relevant events. Particularly, RIF supports the organisation of such events in Cyprus with an amount of up to 800 Euros (after a relevant request to RIF and the submission of invoices/payment receipts and other proofs such as agenda, participants list etc) for covering costs that are not eligible to be covered by COST, such as souvenirs for participants, field trip for touristic purposes, including bus transfer, bus transfer to the event dinner etc. Costs must be reasonable and within the market prices of Cyprus. The event dinner is not eligible. For more information, please contact RIF.

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Opportunities to Participate in COST

As part of implementing its mission to fund bottom-up, excellent, open collaboration networks (COST Actions) in the area of science and technology, COST offers the following participation opportunities in its activities, for researchers and innovators from academia, public or private organisations, NGOs, industry and SMEs:

Create a new COST Action
Participate in an existing COST Action
Participate as an External Expert

In addition, COST has recently created a training initiative for COST Actions’ participants, the COST Academy, which offers training, workshops and mentoring in issues relevant to the implementation of COST Actions, particularly aiming among other things to develop the skills of young researchers and researchers from Inclusiveness Target Countries.

Based on official statistics published in the COST Annual Report 2019, in each COST Action an average of 30 countries participate, offering significant networking opportunities in Europe and beyond, while 88% of participants in COST Actions consider their participation to have contributed to the advancement of their career. At the same time the impact of participating in a COST Action is also significant in the ability to attract funding, with proposals resulting from COST Action to have a 37% success rate in H2020 and the average value of spin-off projects per Action to be estimated at 6 million Euros.

Creation of a new COST Action

Interested researchers, can propose the creation of a new COST Action by submitting a relevant proposal to the COST Open Call, which collects and evaluates proposals once or twice a year, for the creation of 40-45 new Actions.

The submission of the short proposal, is a one-stage procedure, done via the electronic submission tool e-COST and is open to all scientific and technological fields (bottom-up).

Proposals must be submitted by a network of proposers from at least seven (7) COST Members, amongst which a minimum number, depending on the size of the network, shall be from COST Inclusiveness Target Countries (ITC). Funding amounts to 134.000 Euros per annum, for four (4) years.

Proposals are evaluated against specific criteria of scientific and technological excellence, networking excellence, impact and implementation.

RIF provides a pre-screening service to interested parties from Cyprus that plan to submit a proposal for creating a new COST Action. The pre-screening request form is available here

Participation in existing COST Action

In each COST Action, up to two researchers can be nominated by each COST country as Management Committee Delegates (MC Delegates).

Interested researchers that wish to represent Cyprus in the Management Committee of an existing COST Action, must submit an application using the relevant form Application for Participate in the Management Committee of a COST Action . Application submission is being done via the IRIS Platform.

The national rules and participation criteria in COST Actions, as well as the obligations of applicants representing Cyprus, are included in the following document: Criteria for Participating in Running Actions of the COST Programme, General Rules, Procedures and Participants’ Obligations.

Participation in a running COST Action is open to researchers from any organisation legally established in the Republic of Cyprus, from the public or private sector, conducting research relevant to the activities of the Action. Applicants must have a permanent employment position in their organization, while in case they are employed on a contract of limited or fixed-term duration, the period of the contract must at least be the same or exceed the lifetime of the Action, with an exception applied for Early Career Investigators.

During the evaluation of an application by RIF, the following three criteria are taken into consideration:

active participation of the Applicant (as a Coordinator or Partner) in a ongoing research project relevant to the activities of Action
proven recent experience / competence of the Applicant in conducting research in a field relevant to the activities of the Action,
recent, relevant scientific publications.

Applicants who were members of the initial consortium establishing a COST Action do not need to submit an application to RIF, however, they have to inform RIF on their wish to participate in the Action, in order for RIF to check that the national rules apply and take the relevant steps for their nomination.

Apart from the participation in the Management Committee of an action, there is also the option of joining an Action at the Working Group level only, for which no application to RIF is required, but the applicant needs to communicate with the Action Chair. RIF encourages Early-Stage Researchers / PhD Candidates to participate in the Working Groups of running.

Engage as a COST External Expert

The COST Association invites experts from all scientific areas to participate in the evaluation of proposals collected through the COST Open Call for the establishment of new COST Actions or in the evaluation of the results and outcomes of existing COST Actions.

Interested experts can come from any sector (academia, industry etc), however they should possess a university degree and considerable scientific or professional experience in their area of expertise.

Potential experts can express their interest via the COST Expert online registration form www.cost.eu/experts, providing their Curriculum Vitae and publication list.

Cyprus’ participation in COST

Cyprus participates in COST since 1996 as an observer and since 1999 as full COST Member State.

The Research and Innovation Foundation (RIF) is coordinating the COST Programme in Cyprus, by promoting and strengthening Cyprus’ participation in COST Actions. The Foundation implements relevant activities, including the following:

information, support and guidance for interested researchers,
managing Cypriot participation in Actions (review of applications for participation, nominations etc),
communication with the COST Administration, and
pre-screening service for proposals to be submitted under the Open Call for the creation of new Actions.

The participation of researchers and innovators from Cyprus, is continuously increasing. In 2021, Cyprus was represented in 33 writing groups from the total of 70 approved proposals for the creation of new COST actions (Participation Rate: 47.1%). Three approved proposals have been coordinated from researchers from Cyprus, which is a record for Cyprus over the last years. In general, researchers’ participation from Cyprus in active COST Actions shows a rising trend during the last years, from 61% in 2020 and 59% to 63% in 2021. Contribution of women in active COST Actions is significant with their participation exceeding 50% of the overall participation. (54.6%). Slightly lower is the participation of young researchers with 45.3%.

Overall, 19 researchers from Cyprus have been holding leadership positions in COST Actions in 2021, nine of whom were women and three young researchers (15.8%). No changes in the number of researchers from Cyprus at leadership positions have been observed since 2021. Nonetheless, it is ranked second in number of participations in leadership positions. (Max number: 22 participants in 2019).

During the period 2014-2020, 1999 researchers from Cyprus participated in networking activities, of whom 940 were young researchers and 726 were women. Furthermore, a number of networking activities conducted reached 82 meetings, 135 Short Term Research Missions and 19 training schools, while nine findings were provided for the participation in seminars organised by third parties.

It should be noted that, participation in COST Actions may lead to new collaborations and the participation of researchers in proposals submitted for funding in other funding sources. During 2017-2020, participation of researchers form Cyprus in COST Actions, has resulted in the funding of nine (9) projects of an overall budget of 19.88 million euro, from Horizon 2020 with Cyprus participation.

Sources H2020 Factsheet – Cyprus and 2021 Factsheet Cyprus.

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COST Association

COST Association

COST Actions

Opportunities to Participate in COST

Cyprus’ participation in COST

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