1. Promoting and Spreading Research Excellence: Perspectives from the European Association for Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST)
Sierd Cloetingh
Tbilisi, 4 May 2018

2. COST – 45 years proven track record in research collaboration
36 COST Members
Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
1 Cooperating Member
Israel

3. COST key figures of 2017

4. Role of COST in the ERA – 3 Strategic Priorities
Promoting and spreading excellence
Fostering interdisciplinary research for breakthrough science
Boosting careers young researchers 1 2 3

5. Promoting and spreading excellence
Everyone benefits
Absolute/relative participation (2% non-ITC vs. 10% ITC)

6. Promoting and spreading excellence

7. Dedicated measures for active ITC participation
COST Info Days
Targeted to ITC
combined with high-level meeting ITC government, including NCP
Proposals
Eligibility
External experts
Inclusiveness policy
COST Actions
COST Action Leadership
Conference grant for PhD students and young researchers
Pre-payment for STSM
COST Academy
Leadership workshop
Finance/Admin workshop
Science Communication training
Mentoring GH
Mentoring Chair

8. Fostering interdisciplinary research for breakthrough science

9. Reasons for participation of SMEs: network and information driven
Participation in COST Actions allow SMEs to:
To find partners for research projects and proposals
To stay up-to-date with new research
To exploit new technologies
To retrieve first-hand information
To know the key researchers in a specific field
To increase European/international visibility
Knowledge sharing leads to..
Participants in, for example, a research project need to share knowledge in order to create a common understanding of problems at hand,
and to coordinate activities. This applies to information seeking, interpretation, analyses etc including timing and sequencing of research tasks and reporting.
New knowledge (innovations) seem often to arise from synthesis and re-combination of spread pieces of knowledge (disruptive innovation). These are pieces already existing here and there, and which may serve quite new functions when put together in new and innovative ways. There is a common understanding that networking creates synergies, where 1+1 is more than 2.

10. Boosting careers of young researchers

11. Boosting careers of young researchers
Overall participation in COST Actions

12. Boosting careers of young researchers

13. COST as pre-portal to ERA

14. Example of COST success stories
COST Action FP1106
Running from 23/04/2012 – 22/04/2016
STReESS - Studying Tree Responses to extreme Events: a SynthesiS
Lead to establishment of new research facility, the DendroLab Novi Sad, Serbia
Many outputs of the Action were directly linked to these focal activities. In particular, we made use of COST tools such as 2 training schools, 20 workshops and 44 STSMs to promote the role of Early Career Investigators (50% ECIs in this Action) and stimulate involvement, mobility, and interactions amongst COST members. Besides common papers, project proposals, and initiated projects, these tools have resulted in fostering inclusiveness, know-how transfer, exchange of research equipment (including the establishment of new research facilities as, for example, the new DendroLab in Novi Sad, Serbia), the career of young researchers (e.g.; 10 new PhD and post-doc positions), the homogenization of methods (protocols), and a European wide interdisciplinary and team-work spirit. Similarly, COST MC member meetings were often organized with inclusiveness principle; i.e. with special regard to countries (4 meeting in inclusiveness countries), meeting costs, and a sub-structure with 10 Topic Groups, to expand and increase participation of not only MC members.

15. Example of COST success stories
Czech Republic and Switzerland provide additional
national support to COST Action participants
Budget is available for
Personnel cost of staff assigned to the project (focus on PhD)
Cost of new equipment
Cost of sub-contracting …
In addition to the networking tools and the subsequent budget that is dedicated to participants in COST Actions, both Switserland and Czech Republic have additional measures at the disposal for supporting researchers in COST networks. This additional funding is intended to even more support researchers to establish broad international networks, often at an early stage in their carreer.
Support for Swiss participants in COST Actions
Switzerland has a budget line available in the Swiss National Science Foundation, specifically for COST. Budget can be requested for following activities:
For supporting COST activities (workshops, conferences, training schools, etc) taking place in Switzerland. If for example a Management Committee and a Working Group of an action arrange a meeting in Switzerland, then Switzerland will top-up the available budget provided by COST in a similar order of magnitude. Switzerland also supports activities that are only local, e.g. two members of a COST Action (or sometimes from two different Actions with related topics) invite their Swiss colleagues to a workshops or a conference which is directly related to their COST activities (transfer of knowledge). The amount of funding for these kind of activities are in order of up to 3000 EUR max. The handling of the requested budget is very flexible.
For supporting COST activities in “big” conferences with specific COST sessions. If there was a specific interest of Switzerland (political or policy related) the amount could go up to 7000 EUR max. Budget can be requested under the same terms as a).
For funding projects salary and research costs of PhD/doctoral or postdoctoral students embedded in a number of COST Actions. The handling of the funds here is regulated in a much stricter format with rules and regulations. Research projects can be submitted on a template to a call. PhD projects can be submitted only in the first year of a COST Action to guarantee enough overlap of Action and project. Eligible funding costs are salaries, research funds (all funds needed to carry out the project) and subcontracting costs and costs to access large facilities owned by third parties. Projects are evaluated on the basis of scientific relevance, originality, added value through participation in the respective COST Action and the track record and expertise of applicants.
The maximum amount for a four-year project is EUR. The funding will be adapted for a shorter period. Overall, a budget of more than 3.6 MEUR will be available for the period
Support for Czech researchers in COST Actions.
The Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic offers additional support to participants in COST Actions. Beneficiaries can be both research organisations and SME’s operating in the field of research and development. Requests for funding can be submitted to the Department of Strategic Programs & Projects. Proposals are evaluated on the basis of scientific and research quality of the proposal, the expected benefits and the terms of project implementation.
Eligible costs are:
Costs of staff assigned to the project
Costs of new or second hand equipment
Costs of consumables and supplies
Costs of subcontracting
Travel and substance allowances
Indirect costs – overheads
The budget that is available for this program between 2017 and 2024 is 24 million Euro.
It has to be noted that due to the transfer of COST from the Ministry to the Swiss National Science Foundation, both activities described under a) and b) are under revision.

16. How it works COST Action participants
nominated by COST National Coordinators
Main proposer
Secondary proposers

17. Implementing COST’s Strategic Priorities
COST Innovators Grant
COST Academy
COST global networking
COST Connect
COST science-informed policy advice
Meetings, workshops
and conferences, and conference grant
Training schools
Short-term Scientific
Missions
Dissemination
activities
COST Actions
Requested Budget for FP9: EUR 600 Million

18. COST and its mission in FP9
COST is committed to promoting and spreading excellence
all over Europe and beyond, while …
fostering interdisciplinary research for breakthrough science, and
boosting careers of young researchers
COST will strengthen its role in the ERA by …
expanding COST Actions, and
providing added value services to COST participants

19. International Partner Countries

20. COST Near Neighbour Countries (NNC)

21. Participation from Near Neighbour Countries
COST Actions are open to welcome Near Neighbour Countries participants
Participation is based on mutual benefit
Funding conditions are different: researchers from NNCs are eligible for reimbursement, COST Actions with NNC participants receive a top-up to their allocated budget
Engaging to COST Actions: as a mandatory proposer or joining an existing COST Action

22. Approval process for Near Neighbour Countries participants
Letter of intent based on mutual benefit to COST Action chair
Internal approval procedure, appr. 15 days
The request for joining an Action is made by the institution of the researcher assigning the individual scientist to the Action
They can be invited by the Action MS as Action MC Observers (having no voting rights within the Action MS). They can not be elected as Action Chair / Vice-Chair / Working Group Leader

23. Participation of Near Neighbour Countries in COST Activities
Numbers of institutions participating in COST Actions (actual number of researchers is higher)

24. COST Full Membership Conditions
COST Membership is open to every European State that fulfils all of the following conditions:
Adoption of the European Research Area
Adoption of the democratic principles and European values as defined by the Council of Europe
Associated to at least two (2) consecutive EU Framework Programmes
Adequate participation or ability of adequate participation in COST activities, i.e. successful participation in at least five (5) % of the running COST Actions covering different fields and disciplines

25. Current Georgian participation in COST
Georgia is currently active in 12 COST Actions, reaching the threshold of participating in 5,1% of the running COST Actions (total number of 233 running COST Actions)
Georgia is nearly ready to go from NNC to COST Full Member as of FP9 if a stable and increasing participating continues. A warm welcome to Georgia in the COST Family!

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