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COST Actions

COST

What is the COST?

COST Actions (www.cost.eu) are focused on strengthening Europe´s research and innovation capacities via networking: meetings, workshops, conferences, training schools, short term scientific missions, dissemination activities, etc. leading to new concepts, services and products. COST Actions are pan-European, bottom-up, open, unique, multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary, output & impact-oriented. For all COST details, see the 2024_COST_summary   and 2024_COST_infographic  .

Inspiration from the COST Information Day in Prague (February 16, 2018): COST  , MSMT  , Krcma  , Martinkova  , Komanec  .

Inspiration from the COST Association Information Day online (Wed 27 March 2024).

Information on national COST Action association via Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MEYS) available here.

Why become part of a COST Action?

  • Have an opportunity to meet excellent researchers, to make new contacts, to establish new research collaborations within Europe, to become known and involved in preparation of new research projects.
  • Regular members and substitutes have their travel expenses to attend COST meetings usually reimbursed.
  • Only researchers who are members of running COST Actions can apply for the INTER-COST grants.

How to become a member of a COST Action?

  1. Apply for running COST Actions
    1. Find running COST Action(s) in your research field. You can be a member of several COST Actions.
    2. Write a short paragraph summarizing your research activities with a short explanation of how your research is relevant for the topic of the chosen COST Action and which work package your research would best fit into. Send the paragraph to the main coordinator of the COST Action (this is the Action Chair for running Actions and Action Proposer for newly approved Actions, where a kick-off meeting has not been held yet).
    3. At the same time, apply to join the selected COST Action (including the appropriate working group) through the e-COST system.
    4. Inform the Project Office on projectoffice@uochb.cas.cz about your plan to apply to the COST action, as they will be able to advise you on some specific particulars that must be adhered to. The Project Office will be able to help you with the preparation of two documents, and in both of them the project title must agree with the project that you might eventually submit to the INTER-COST competition.
      1. Prepare a Letter of Commitment (draft of the letter  ) and send it to the main coordinator (Proposer of the Action for newly approved COST actions or Chair of the Action for running COST actions) of the chosen COST Action to sign it. The main coordinator of this COST Action confirms your participation/membership in the COST Action by this Letter of Commitment.
      2. Fill in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MEYS) application form  , ensuring that the project title agrees with the project that you might eventually submit to the INTER-COST competition.
    5. With the Letter of Commitment signed by the main coordinator of the COST Action and with the completed Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MEYS) application form   we can submit your application to the COST National Coordinator at MEYS (Ing. Ludmila Čermáková, Ph.D., ☎: +420 234 811 512, ludmila.cermakova@msmt.cz. By submitting an application you can become a) one of two regular members, or b) one of the official substitute members, or c) one of the other participants of the COST Action.

  2. Apply for a new COST Action
    If there is no COST Action relevant to your research field, do not hesitate to initiate establishment of a new COST Action. Consortium of at least 7 institutions from at least 7 COST Member States represented by a main proposer can apply to the COST. The nearest COST Action call deadline is on 23 October 2024 at 12:00 (CET)..

    1. Find and read programme guidelines:
    2. Contact your research partners and initiate the establishment of a consortium of at least 7 researchers from at least 7 institutions from at least 7 COST Member States. Discuss activities & goals of the proposed COST Action.
    3. Contact IOCB management to negotiate further institutional support of the project. For IOCB official agreement with project submission, it is necessary to complete the electronic IOCB Project request form. You must be either on the IOCB network or connected via the IOCB Virtual Private Network (VPN) to access this system. Please inform the Project Office about your intention to apply as soon as possible, even before submitting the internal form.
    4. Ask the Main Proposer to create an account (if not registered yet) in e-COST.
    5. Discuss and prepare the project with the consortium partners. Fill in the Technical Annex MoU  . Save the final version as a PDF. The technical annex includes sections on:
      • Science & technology excellence
      • Networking excellence
      • Impact
      • Implementation
    6. Finalise the application.
      • General features (e-COST, applicant)
      • Technical annex (use template  , upload in PDF, applicant & Project Office)
      • References (not-mandatory, max 500 words, e-COST, applicant)
      • COST Mission, Policy and rules (mandatory max 1000 words, e-COST, applicant)
      • Network of proposers (mandatory, e-COST, applicant & Project Office)
    7. Submit your application before Wed 23 October 2024 12:00 (CET) (IOCB deadline is on 16 October 2024).


    Final evaluation results will be announced to applicants in April 2025.
    The grant start date is expected to be in September–October 2025.

    COST contact: COST Association
    Avenue du Boulevard – Bolwerklaan 21, 1210 Brussels, Belgium opencall@cost.eu

    MEYS Contact: Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, Unit for Management of International R&D&I Projects
    Karmelitská 529/5, 118 12, Prague 1
    Ing. Ludmila Čermáková, Ph.D., ☎: +420 234 811 512, ludmila.cermakova@msmt.cz


    IOCB

    IOCB participation (10) in running COST Actions:

    • Eliška Procházková + Miloslav Polášek: Supramolecular LUminescent Chemosensors for Environmental Security (LUCES) (CA22131, 16 Oct 2023 – 15 Oct 2027; COST link)
    • Martin Dračínský: Bringing Experiment and Simulation Together in Crystal Structure Prediction (BEST-CSP) (CA22107, 18 Sep 2023 – 17 Sep 2027; COST link)
    • Robert Hanus: European Network In CHEmical Ecology: translating the language of life into sustainability (E-NICHE) (CA22102, 6 Oct 2023 – 5 Oct 2027; COST link)
    • Tomáš Pluskal: Establishing a Pan-European Network on Computational Redesign of Enzymes (COZYME) (CA21162, 18 Oct 2022 – 17 Oct 2026; COST link)
    • Dominik Rejman: European Network for diagnosis and treatment of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections (EURESTOP) (CA21145, 6 Oct 2022 – 5 Oct 2026; COST link)
    • Eva Kudová: P2X receptors as a therapeutic opportunity (PRESTO) (CA21130, 12 Oct 2022 – 11 Oct 2026; COST link)
    • Qin Yang: Confined molecular systems: From a new generation of materials to the stars (COSY) (CA21101, 27 Sep 2022 – 26 Sep 2026)
    • Kvido Stříšovský + Martin Horn: A sound proteome for a sound body: targeting proteolysis for proteome remodelling (CA20113, 7 Oct 2021 – 6 Oct 2025; COST link)

    IOCB participation (14) in closed COST Actions:

    • Tomáš Pluskal: Pan-European Network in Lipidomics and EpiLipidomics (CA19105, 23 Apr 2020 – 22 Apr 2024; COST link)
    • Tomáš Slanina: Attosecond Chemistry (CA18222, 25.10.2019 – 24.10.2023; COST link)
    • Jan Weber: ADHEsion GPCR network - Research and Implementation Set the path for future Exploration. (Adher´n Rise) (CA18240, 14 Nov 2019 – 13 Nov 2023; COST link)
    • Václav Kašička: European network for the promotion of portable, affordable and simple analytical platforms (CA16215, Oct 2017 – Apr 2022; COST link)
    • Petr Bouř: An integrative action for multidisciplinary studies on cellular structural networks, www.eurocellnet.eu (CA15214, Oct 2016 – Oct 2020; COST link)
    • Michal Hocek: C-H Activation in Organic Synthesis (CHAOS) (CA15106, Mon 21 Mar 2016 – Fri 20 Mar 2020; COST link
    • Martin Horn: Targeted chemotherapy towards diseases caused by endoparasites (CM1307, Mar 2014 – Mar 2018; COST link)
    • Ullrich Jahn: Biomimetic Radical Chemistry (CM1201, Dec 2012 – Dec 2016; COST link)
    • Tomáš Kraus: Supramolecular Chemistry in Water, supracheminwater.wordpress.com (CM1005, Mar 2011 – Mar 2015; COST link)
    • Martin Pošta: Strigolactones: biological roles and applications (FA1206, Apr 2013 – Apr 2017; COST link)
    • Lubomír Rulíšek: Explicit Control Over Spin-states in Technology and Biochemistry (ECOSTBio) (CM1305, Apr 2014 – Apr 2018; COST link)
    • Lubomír Rulíšek: Understanding Movement and Mechanism in Molecular Machines (CM1306, Jun 2014 – Jun 2018; COST link)
    • Irena Valterová + Martin Horn: Sustainable pollination in Europe - joint research on bees and other pollinators (SUPER-B), www.superb-project.eu (FA1307, Apr 2014 – Apr 2018; COST link)