COST

COST (European COoperation in Science and Technology) is the oldest and widest system for research networking in Europe. It is based on an inter-governmental framework for cooperation research agreed in 1971. COST has since grown into a system for research collaboration covering 35 Member States plus one cooperating state, Israel, and is active in 9 scientific domains. The mission of COST is to strengthen Europe in scientific and technical research through the support of European cooperation and interaction between European researchers. It provides European synergy and added value in non-competitive and pre-normative research covering both basic and more applied/strategic research as well as issues of societal importance. COST is funded through the EU Framework Programme and supports the coordination costs of the research networks (Actions). Research funding for the network participants remains a national responsibility. The COST characteristics are: ‘Bottom-up approach’ (the initiatives comes from the European scientists themselves), ‘à la carte participation’ (only countries interested in an Action participate), ‘equality of access’ (participation is open to European countries beyond the European Union), and a ‘flexible structure’ (easy implementation and light management of the research initiatives). The Secretariat to the Technical Committees and COST Actions is provided by the COST Office established by the European Science Foundation (ESF) acting as the ‘implementing agent’ for COST.


http://www.cost.eu

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