COST to start 40 new actions in 2019

On 13 November 2018, COST’s governing board, the Committee of Senior Officials (CSO), have confirmed the funding of 40 new COST Actions, starting in Spring 2019.

35 per cent of the 40 network proposals cover at least two OECD fields of science and technology, while 7 per cent cover at least three fields.

Natural sciences lead the way as the most represented field of science (40 per cent of the Actions), followed by medical and health sciences (28 per cent), engineering and technology (28 per cent), social sciences (23 per cent), humanities (20 per cent) and agricultural sciences (5 per cent).

The 40 successful proposals in figures:

• More than 25 per cent of proposal leaders are early-career investigator
• One third of proposal leaders are women
• Two third of the proposals feature participants from SMEs and industry
• 33 per cent of all proposers work in an Inclusiveness Target Country
• Over 80 per cent of the future networks have attracted participants from all over the world (COST International Partner Countries/Near Neighbour Countries)

The full Action details are available here.

COST expands in the east

In November Moldova has become the 38th COST Member. 

The decision was taken as Moldova had met the requirements for becoming a full Member. Moldovan institutions have participated in at least two consecutive EU Framework programmes, FP7 and Horizon 2020. They have also participated in at least 5 per cent of running COST Actions.  Moldova are currently involved in 13 COST Actions, which equals 5.65 per cent of total running Actions.