COST : PAST,PRESENT, FUTURE Francesco Fedi President COST Committee Senior Officials

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COST PAST,PRESENT, FUTUREFrancesco
FediPresident COST Committee Senior Officials
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COST

• COST
• COoperation in Science and Technology
• Oldest and widest intergovernmental
  European Network for cooperation in
  scientific and technical research

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COST

• WHY
• does COST exist ?

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• 1900

Guglielmo Marconi
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COST

• - To connect Europe and Canada with e.m.waves
• - The Academia is against
• - Nobody knows of the ionosphere
• - Incredible difficulties
• - The experiment is performed
• - The letter S in the Morse alphabet is heard
  in Canada

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COST

• Guglielmo Marconi would have needed
• support for a new brilliant idea with a
  foreseeable enormous impact of results
• Guglielmo Marconi would have needed
• international cooperation
• Guglielmo Marconi would have needed COST
• i.e.

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COST

• - a fast, efficient,effective, flexible framework
• - to get brilliant scientists together
• - under light strategic guidance
• - to let them work out their ideas

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COST

• 1971
• Conference of the Ministers of Research of 19
  European countries convened in Brussels in
  November 1971

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COST

• opened the possibility of cooperation in the
  field of Scientific and Technical research for
• - the 6 countries of the European Community
• -13 countries not belonging at that time to the
  European Community

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COST

• Conclusion of an intense preparatory work carried
• out in the late 60s
• European response to the international
  challenging
• situation (Jean Jacques Servan Schreiber Le defi
• Americain)
• Strategy adopted by the 6 countries
• to recuperate the delays of Europe in many areas
  of scientific and technical research
• to open the COST cooperation to other 13 European
  countries

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COST

• In 1971 COST research initiatives (Actions) are
  the only form of cooperation in Europe
• In 1974 the European Science Foundation, in 1983
  the First Framework Programme and in 1985 EUREKA
• The existence of these initiatives
  notwithstanding, the interest of the European
  scientific community in COST constantly increased

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COST

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COST

• From 7 scientific domains in 1971
• to 12 scientific domains in 2004
• Agriculture, Food Sciences and Biotechnology
• Chemistry
• Environment
• Forests and Forestry Products
• Materials
• Medicine and Health
• Meteorology
• Physics
• Social Sciences and Humanities
• Telecommunications Information Science and
  Technology
• Transport
• Urban Civil Engineering

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COST

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Participation of institutions of non-COST
countries
(Total 82)
Ukraine (10)
USA (16)
Algeria (1)
Russia (23)
Armenia (2)
Argentina (1)
Australia (3)
Canada (13)
Others (3)
Japan (6)
China (4)
India (1)
Eritrea (1)
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COST CARACTERISTICS

• Bottom- up approach. The initiative of launching
  a COST Action comes from the scientists and
  technical experts themselves.
• A la carte participation. Only the countries
  interested in the Action sign the relevant
  Memorandum of Understanding. A minimum number
  of 5 signatures.
• Equality of access. Participation is open also to
  the scientific communities of countries not
  belonging to the European Union . COST has
  therefore the ability to anticipate the evolving
  European political situation a bridge to the
  scientific communities of countries of the whole
  Europe.

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COST CHARACTERISTICS

• Concerted Actions.Coordination of research funded
  through national funds. Duplications and gaps are
  avoided. Consequent synergy and work sharing
  allows a more efficient use of national
  resources.
• Multiplier effect. The funds provided by COST are
  less than 1 of the total value of the Actions
  with only about 20 million per year, more than
  30.000 European scientists are involved in
  research whose total value exceeds 2 billion
  per year.

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COST CHARACTERISTICS

• Flexibility. Easy implementation and agile
  management of research Actions through a simple
  structure.
• The Committee of Senior Officials (CSO) highest
  decision-making body made of representatives of
  all COST member countries ( CNC ).
• The Technical Committees (TC) each responsible
  for a particular research domain formed by
  representatives of the COST countries.
• The Management Committees (MC) (one for each
  Action) formed by national experts of the
  signatory countries coordinate the activities of
  the Action.

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SECRETARIAT

• The Secretariat to CSO provided by the EU Council
  
• The scientific Secretariat to Technical
  Committees and to Actions provided by the EC
  until 2003 and afterwards by the European Science
  Foundation (ESF) through a COST Office located in
  Brussels. ESF as the implementing Agent of COST
  receives from the European Commission the funds
  allocated to COST.

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QUALITY CONTROL

• By the COST TCs assisted by the COST Office
  according to the COST Guidelines
• The assessment of proposals for new Actions. Peer
  review by an Assessment Panel (Rapporteur ,
  Scientific Secretary and external experts).
  Assessment Report presented to and approved by
  the TC.
• The monitoring of the Actions in progress .
  Annual Progress Report presented by the MC
  Chair in the yearly meeting with the relevant
  TC.
• The evaluation of completed Actions. Peer review
  by an Evaluation Panel (Rapporteur, Scientific
  Secretary and external experts). Final
  Evaluation Report presented to and approved by
  the TC .

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RESULTS

• Scientific importance. Thousands of papers. Ph
  Doctors. Recognition of COST scientific Community
  outside Europe.
• Contribution to European competitiveness.
  Contributions to normative and standardization
  bodies. SMEs originating from COST Actions.
  Transfer of results to European Industry.
• Societal importance. Delicate issues arising
  from new technologies. High - standard, industry
  - independent , scientific environment.
• Contribution to the ERA. COST precursor of
  research projects in the FPs. Networks of
  Excellence from COST Actions in FP6.

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COST

• RECENT HISTORY
• FUTURE OF COST

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COST

• DARK AGES YEARS 2002-2003
• - EC declared its intention to cease to
  provide the scientific secretariat and the
  financial administration
• - Difficulty to ensure adequate funds from FP6
• - Necessity to introduce reforms

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COST

• - Legal Personality
• - No-profit International Association (
  consensus!)
• - MoU COST-ESF ( end 2002)
• - ESF implementing agent and scientific
  secretariat
• - EC-ESF contract ( end 2003)

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COST

• COST REINASSANCE
• YEARS 2004-2005

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COST

• - COST Office ( January 2004)
• - COST budget in FP6 50-80 M in 4 years
• - COST Reforms ( Busch Report)

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COST

• COST REFORMS
• www. cost.esf.org
• News from COST

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COST

• - VOTING PROCEDURES
• - LEGAL PERSONALITY
• - EXECUTIVE GROUP OF THE CSO ( JAF GROUP)

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COST

• PRESENTATION AND ASSESSMENT OF PROPOSALS
  FOR NEW ACTIONS
• - Continuous Call for proposals ( April 2006 )
• Bottom up, any time, visibility,
  trasparency, no-rush
• - Two-stage process Preliminary and Full
  Proposals
• No oversubscription, No disillution
• - External Peer-Reviewers for Full Proposals
• High quality of proposals, Honoraria for
  Reviewers

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COST

• RESTRUCTURING OF SCIENTIFIC DOMAINS
• - Milestone in COST history
• - Copernican revolution
• - COST exploratorium of new ideas in the most
  promising fields of science

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COST

• - New Scientific Domains ( June 2006 )
• - Nominations of new members ( March 2006)
• - Interdisciplinarity

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SCIENTIFIC DOMAINS

• Biomedicine and Molecular Bioscience
• Food and Agriculture
• Forests their Products and Services
• Materials, Physical and Nanosciences
• Chemistry and Molecular Sciences Technologies
• Earth Systems ScienceEnvironmental Management
• Information Communication Technologies
• Transport Urban Development
• Individuals, Society, Culture Health

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Biomedicine and Molecular Bioscience

• All areas of basic medicine and clinical
  research. Normal functions of the human body and
  alterations of these functions in the case of
  diseases.
• All areas of genomics not limited to humans but
  also concerning plants, viruses, micro-organisms
  and animals.

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Food and Agriculture

• Plant, animal , food sciences and technologies,
  agricultural production and processing.
• Biological functions of living organisms.
• Human nutrition.
• Socio-economic aspects and relationship between
  agriculture and the environment.

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Forests their Products and Services

• Sustainable management and conservation of
  forests and sustainable use of their resources.
• Research activities in the areas of forestry,
  wood technology and pulp and paper research.
• Social, economic, ecological, cultural needs of
  present and future generations. Protection of
  forests against harmful effects.
• Use of timber as a sustainable, efficient and
  renewable resource of energy.
• Physical, chemical and biological characteristics
  of the fibres.

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Materials, Physical and Nanosciences

• Material science, covering production,
  characterization, examination, evaluation and
  fabrication.
• Physics concerning the laws governing the
  behaviour of matter and energy.
• Nanosciences for sectors such as energy,
  transport, telecommunications, informatics and
  health.

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Chemistry and Molecular Sciences Technologies

• Discovering, understanding, modelling and
  producing molecular structures and chemical
  processes.
• Chemistry for life ( e.g. pharmacy, medicine,
  public health, agriculture ).
• Energy production.
• Environmental impact.
• Space research processes in space and
  interstellar media, around spacecrafts, resources
  of stars and planets.

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Earth Systems Science Environmental Management

• Earth System and environment conditions,
  meteorology, oceanography, fluid dynamics.
• Improvement of monitoring, understanding and
  forecasting of the natural processes.
• Environmental management with a view of
  minimizing deleterious impacts of both human
  activities and natural disasters on changes in
  climate, availability of freshwater, altered
  cycling of carbon and nitrogen, transfer of
  contaminants to air, land and aquatic systems,
  biodiversity, land cover and soils.

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Information Communication Technologies

• Processing, transmission, storage, retrieval and
  exchange of information and knowledge.
• Information science and technology.
• Communication technology covering physical, and
  functional modelling of all elements of
  communication systems.
• Telecommunication and information systems
  infrastructures including human and societal
  aspects.
• Interaction of electromagnetic waves with
  biological material and radiation hazards.

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• Transport Urban Development

• Transport as an important factor of society and
  economy sustainable development, environmental
  impact, safety, security and energy consumption.
• Mobility of people and goods.
• Specific advantages and intermodal solutions of
  road, rail, water and air transport systems.
• Urban architecture, planning and design
• Urban engineering and construction.
• Urban development and services, urban
  infrastructure, networks and utilities, urban
  safety, security and disaster management.

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Individuals, Society, Culture Health

• Behaviour of individuals mind cognition and
  complexity language development learning
  creativity socialisation identities and
  attitudes, etc
• Social, economic, political, cultural, historical
  and technological structures and processes.
• Cultural diversity with a view of a common
  European future.
• Inter-disciplinary topics linking social
  science/humanities with the natural, medical and
  engineering sciences.

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Italian Representatives

• BIOMEDICINE AND MOLECULAR BIOSCIENCES
• Prof. Maria Rosaria BONSIGNORE
• Instituto di Medicina Generale e Pneumologia -
  Università di Palermo
• FOOD AND AGRICULTURE
• Prof. Antonella BALDI
• Facolta' di Medicina Veterinaria - Università di
  Milano
• FORESTS, THEIR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
• Prof. Giuseppe SCARASCIA MUGNOZZA
• Istituto di Biologia Agroambientale e Forestale
  - CNR Terni
• MATERIALS, PHYSICAL AND NANOSCIENCES
• Prof. Fabio BELTRAM
• Scuola Normale Superiore- Pisa

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Italian Representatives

• CHEMISTRY  AND MOLECULAR SCIENCES AND
  TECHNOLOGIES
• Prof. Antonio LAGANA
• Dipartimento di Chimica- Università di Perugia
• EARTH  SYSTEM SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL
  MANAGEMENT
• Prof. Giampiero MARACCHI
• Istituto di Biometeorologia - CNR Firenze
• INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES
• Prof. Marco LISTANTI
• Dipartimento INFOCOM- Università La Sapienza
  Roma
• TRANSPORT AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT
• Prof. Cristina PRONELLO
• Dipartimento di Idraulica, Trasporti e
  Infrastrutture Civili - Politecnico di Torino

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INTERDISCIPLINARITY

• STRATEGIC WORKSHOPS
• Cultural Heritage
• Food and Health
• Nanotechnologies
• Global Environmental Change

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COST Cultural Heritage

• COST STRATEGIC WORKSHOP
• COST AND CULTURAL HERITAGE CROSSING
  BORDERS
• Florence, 19-21 October 2005

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COST

• Aim of the Workshop
• - To underline the need for protection of
  cultural heritage
• - To promote conservation research on a European
  level
• - To encourage networking
• - To explore potential synergies

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COST

• CROSSING BORDERS
• among the various EUROPEAN REGIONS
• has always been
• a distinctive characteristic of COST

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COST

• CROSSING BORDERS
• among the various SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINES
• has always been
• an effort strongly pursued in COST

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COST

• Attendance has been open
• - To Experts in different scientific disciplines
• - To Stakeholders at different levels
• - To Politicians and decision makers
• - To Managers of artistic collections
• - To Managers of archeological sites

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COST Cultural Heritage

• Long tem
• preservation
• of Europes Culture
• is a duty and a challenge

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COST Cultural Heritage

• With this Workshop
• COST hopes
• to have contributed
• to the preservation of Europes
• CULTURAL HERITAGE

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COST

• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

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COST

• European Scientific Community
• If COST did not exist
• it would be necessary
• to invent it

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COST

• HIGH LEVEL PANEL
• for the mid-term review of the EC-ESF contract
  for COST
• recognized
• the important role of COST for the Lisbon
  and Barcelona objectives
• recommended
• - to give the entire sum of 80 M from FP6
• - to continue to support COST in the future
• - to increase the level of funding in FP7

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COST

• FUTURE
• - European Commission ( proposer )
• - Council of the European Union ( co-decisor)
• - European Parliament ( co-decisor)

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THE FUTURE OF COST

• EUROPEAN COMMISSION
• PROPOSAL FOR FP7
• The objectives
• to enhance the synergy between FP7 and COST
• to include financial support for the
  administration and coordination activities of
  COST
• are a recognition of the key role of COST in the
  ERA

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THE FUTURE OF COST

• COUNCIL OF THE EU
• in September 2004
• stressed the importance of reinforcing the ties
  between the Framework Programme and European
  intergovernmental organizations such as COST
• In November 2004
• underlined that European technology initiatives
  should achieve synergies with existing schemes
  such as COST taking into account its important
  contribution to RD.

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THE FUTURE OF COST

• EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
• - Participation in the COST DAY
• - Report of the Rapporteur to the EP on FP7
• - Exibition of COST in the EP ( April 2006 )

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CONCLUSIONS

• The role that COST has had in the past 35 years
• for the founding in Europe of consolidated
  scientific traditions in many key areas at the
  frontiers of our knowledge
• for the establishment of networks of thousands of
  leading Scientists
• for the increase of mobility of researchers in
  Europe
• for the improvement both of cooperation in
  science and technology and of a better
  understanding among European countries
• has been fully recognized

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CONCLUSIONS

• COST expects
• - a full appreciation of its potential
• - an increasing support to its activities
• - the full recognition of its role in the ERA

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CONCLUSIONS

• The expected brilliant future of COST
• is an important opportunity
• for the European scientific community