1. COST - Promoting and Spreading Excellence
Dr Ronald de Bruin, Director of the COST Association COST Info Day, Bratislava, 7 February 2019

2. COST - 45 years proven track record in research collaboration
38 COST Members
Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, 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
Near Neighbour Countries participation
Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Egypt, Georgia, Jordan, Kosovo*, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority, Russia, Syria, Tunisia and Ukraine
*This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.
COST Members
COST Members (ITCs)
COST Cooperating member

3. COST key figures of 2017
COST: The networking tool in the ERA and the pre-portal to other ERA funding schemes

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

5. Average participation in COST Actions, ITCs and other countries

6. COST Info Days Proposals COST Actions COST Academy
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

7. Example of COST success stories
COST Action FP1106
Running from 23/04/ /04/2016
STReESS - Studying Tree Responses to extreme Events: a SynthesiS
Lead to establishment of new research facility, the DendroLab Novi Sad, Serbia

8. Examples of COST Success Stories

9. COST Acting as a pre-portal for FP funding

10. 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 …

11. 1 2 3 Promoting and spreading excellence
Role of COST in the ERA - 3 Strategic Priorities
Promoting and spreading excellence 1
Fostering interdisciplinary research for breakthrough science 2
Boosting careers young researchers 3

12. Priority 1. Promoting and spreading excellence
Everyone Benefits
Absolute/relative participation (2% non-ITC vs. 10% ITC)

13. Priority 1. Promoting and spreading excellence

14. Priority 2. Fostering interdisciplinary research for breakthrough science

15. Boosting careers of young researchers
Bottom-up networking schemes

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

17. Slovakian participation in COST Actions 2012-2018
National participation in running Actions %
(total number of running Actions in bracket)

18. Participations in networking activities by Early Career Investigators 2012-2018
ECI share among participants in Actions’ networking activities

19. Leadership positions held by Slovakian participants 2013-2018

20. 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

21. Thank you! Contact and engage with us! @COST.Programme @COSTprogramme
COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology)
COST Association