European COoperation in Science and Technology

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European COoperation in Science and Technology
Overview COST in FP7 Dr. Martin Grabert COST
Office, Brussels
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The COST mission
Strengthen Europe in scientific and technical
research for peaceful purposes through the
support of cooperation and interaction between
European researchers
The COST programme is a long-running, economical
and highly successful way to spread awareness and
build networks between Europes researchers.It
reflects the human dimension of science, helping
researchers to share not only the results of
their work but also their aims and methods.
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COST characteristics

• Co-ordination through cooperation in networks
• Pan-European
• Multi-disciplinaryNon-competitive
  (pre-normative public utility)
• National financing of researchers and projects
  national responsibility

• Bottom-up no fixed programme/priorities
• Flexible participation join in if you are
  interested
• Interdisciplinary Exploratoria
• Enabling agent focus on younger researchers
• Open to global cooperation

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COST Countries

• ? The 27 EU Member States
• ? EFTA Member States ? Iceland ? Norway ?
  Switzerland
• ? Acceding Candidate Countries ? Croatia
• ? FYR of Macedonia (FYROM)
• ? Turkey
• ? Other Countries ? Republic of Serbia
• ? COST Co-operating States ?Israel

not associated with FP
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COST and our Neighbours
COST Countries
COST neighbouring Countries

• Special budget line in the COST system to
  facilitate collaborations
• Specific exchange activities(Short Term
  Scientific Missions, cooperation of young
  researchers)

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COST Actions global participation (October 2007)
Canada - 26
Russia - 44
Ukraine - 19
Moldova - 2
Bosnia Herzegovina - 2
Georgia - 1
Armenia - 1
Japan - 11
USA - 23
China - 8
Algeria - 2
Rep of Korea - 2
Egypt - 1
China (Taiwan) - 1
Tunisia - 2
Hong Kong - 1
Cuba - 1
Vietnam - 1
India - 1
Colombia - 1
Ethiopia - 1
Malaysia - 1
Brazil - 1
Australia - 21
South Africa - 2
Argentina - 1
New Zealand - 4
181 non-COST country participations in 65 Actions
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COST Actions yearly evolution (1980-2008)
Establishment of the COST Office
Year
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COST Actions Participation by country
(31/12/2007)
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COST Governance
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What is a COST Action?
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What is funded by COST?
COST Actions Nationally funded projects (min. 5
participating countries) with a joint work
programme receive finance for

• Science management meetings
• Scientific workshops and seminars
• Short Term Scientific Missions (STSMs)
• Training Schools and Research Conferences
• Dissemination
• Average funding about 100 000 per year per
  Action

Strategic Workshops to explore future scientific
or societal needs, support policy developments or
initiate new activities
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COST Action Life Cycle
Open CallCollection Date
Two Stage Process (6 months)
Dissemination (x years)
Assessment
Monitoring
DC assesses proposals
DC adopts draft MoU
Evaluation
time
1st MC Meeting
CSO approves draft MOU
5 countries sign MOU
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Examples for COST Actions
Prebiotic Chemistry and Early Evolution COST
Action D27
Prebiotic chemistry is the chemistry that
describes the chemical processes associated with
this transition to life from the inanimate
matter. It is a classic field within the chemical
world. Initiated in the early 1920s with the
seminal book by Alexander Ivanovich Oparin, it
was not until the famous experiments by Stanley
Miller in 1953, showing that simple electrical
discharges in a prebiotic-like gaseous mixture
could produce amino acids and other important
biomolecules, that it became an independent area
of research.. Since then, prebiotic chemistry has
expanded greatly, and thanks to many researchers,
alleged prebiotic conditions have been described
under which several biomolecules can be
fabricated.
The main objective of the Action is to develop
the chemistry connected with the origin of life
and early evolution of life on Earth, with
special emphasis on self-replicating systems,
prebiotic synthesis of nucleic acids and
polypeptides, as well as simple protocells as
early models of biological cells.
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Examples for COST Actions
Targeted Radionuclide Therapy - TRNT COST Action
BM0607
The main objective of the Action is to improve
the potential of cancer therapy through the
development and application of innovative vectors
labeled with therapeutic radionuclides for
targeted radionuclide therapy of disseminated
cancer
Advantage of TRNT over chemotherapy?We can
easily - quickly see what we are doingCrossfire
effect
Radioimmunotherapy of Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma 6th
leading cause of cancer death in the United
States
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Examples for COST Actions
How new telecommunications can benefit people
with disabilities COST Action 219 ter
A major societal issue as we move towards a fully
mobile and fully linked society is maintaining
accessibility for all. Future generations of
mobile communications systems will transmit data,
text, voice, pictures and video between fixed or
moving terminals. Customers will access variable
bandwidth instantly and will be charged
accordingly and automatically. Mobile systems
will provide Internet access as well as
point-to-point communication, and they will be
linked with wireless broadcast services.COST
219ter Is promoting a communications
infrastructure that is accessible to all
including the elderly and the disabled Takes
part in adapting and designing the equipment
accordingly Stimulates and carries out research
and development to improve accessibility to
services for disabled and older people in smart
houses.
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Examples for COST Actions
Sunshine makes water safer to drink COST Action
P9
One in five people on earth have no safe drinking
water and are at serious risk from water-borne
diseases. Solar Disinfection (SODIS) is a
technique for making microbially contaminated
drinking water safe. Transparent bottles are
filled with contaminated water and placed
indirect sunlight for 6 hours. The combined
action of solar UVA ionising radiation and the
induced heating effect reduces microbial
contamination levels from 1 million bacteria per
ml to zero in lt 1.5 hours and is completely
effective against the pathogens responsible for
cholera, salmonella, gastroenteritis, and other
diseases.COST contributes to meet the EU's
commitments under the Millennium Development
Goals (MDG), the EU Water Initiative (EUWI), the
Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on
Sustainable Development (WSSD)
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Examples for COST Actions
Algorithmic Decision Theory COST Action IC0602
The main objective of the Action is twofold-
propose new algorithmic solutions for hard
decision theoretic problems arising from the use
of large amounts of information, the presence of
uncertainty as well as of complex structures of
data- use results and concepts from decision
theory in order to improve and advance in
computer science and artificial intelligence.
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The role of the Domain Committees (DCs)

• Assessment of proposals in the Open Call
• Reviewing and rating of Preliminary Proposals
• Hearings and Ranking of Full Proposals
• Participation in establishing final selection
• Monitoring of Actions in progress
• Progress Report submitted every year by Actions
• Presentation by the Action Chair at Annual Review
  Meeting (ARM) and advising the COST Office on
  budget
• Evaluation of completed Actions
• Peer review by the Evaluation Panel
• Approval of the Evaluation Report

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The role of the Management Committees (MCs)

• Supervises and coordinates the implementation of
  the Action
• Providing decisions as legal basis for
  expenditures
• Composed of
• Maximum 2 representatives of each party
  (participating country)
• ensuring the scientific coordination at national
  level
• One representative of any non-COST institution
  admitted to participate
• Representatives of the COST Office
• Each party has one vote

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The tasks of the Management Committees (MCs)

• Managing the Actions budget
• Submitting the annual work and budget plan
• Submitted by the Chair on behalf of MC
• Preliminary Financial Report to be submitted
• Final Financial Report to be submitted at a later
  stage
• Audit Committee to certify the expenditures by
  the Grant Holder to be line with the MC decisions
• Progress Report within a given deadline
• Contributions to the Domains Annual Review
  Meeting to be organised

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The Open Call Scheme

• Open Call Thematically open
• Encourages interdisciplinary proposals
• Improves transparency
• Ensures quality
• Furthers competitiveness
• Emphasis on Early Stage researchers their joint
  efforts bring improved recognition
• Selection criteria are public
• Specific collection dates (i.e. 28 March 2008)
• 2-stage process / peer reviewed
• Successful COST Actions proposals can expect to
  start activities within 9 months after the
  collection date

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COST Open Call for proposals
COST invites researchers throughout Europe to
submit proposals for research networks and use
this unique opportunity to exchange knowledge and
to embark on new European perspectives. www.cost.e
sf.org/opencall This continuous call is
thematically open. Proposals from all Scientific
Domains are welcome. The next collection date for
preliminary proposals is 28 March 2008.
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COST Open Call process
Selection process Preliminary Proposals
BMBS
CMST
ESSEM
FA
Allocation to Domains anonymised distribution
Eligibility Check
Collection Date
FPS
ISCH
ICT
MPNS
TUD
1 week
3 weeks
3 days
Minimum time span
CD2 30-03-2007 16-04-2007 07-05-2007
11-05-2007CD3 30-09-2007 15-10-2007 05-11-2007
10-11-2007
Dates
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COST Open Call
Assessment criteria Preliminary Proposals
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COST Open Call process
Selection process Full Proposals
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COST Open Call
Assessment criteria Full Proposals
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COST in FP7 Highlights

• Early stage researchers (i.e. PhD lt10 years)
• Open Call participation
• Increased duration of Short Term Scientific
  Missions (STSMs)
• More Training schools
• Increased involvement in existing COST
  Activities
• Outreach and profiling
• Pilot schemes (e.g. Australia and New Zealand)
• Joint activities
• High Level Research Conference (COST-ESF)
• Frontiers of Science Workshops (COST-ESF)
• Strategic Workshops and Science Initiatives
• Outreach Activities (e.g. ESOF2008)

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COST in FP7 Legal Base

• The decision of the European Parliament and of
  the Council of 18 December 2006 concerning the
  7th RTD Framework Programme (2007-2013) foresees
  financial support for the administration and
  coordination activities of COST".
• Annex II of the Specific Programme 'Cooperation',
  in the budget of the Specific Programme,
  stipulates the financial support for COST Of
  which at least EUR 210 million and up to EUR 250
  million for COST, subject to the mid-term
  evaluation. This financial support will be
  provi-ded through a grant which will be paid on
  the basis of a grant agreement between the
  Commission and a legal entity designated by COST
  as its implementing agent and communi-cated to
  the Commission by the General Secretariat of the
  Council and identified in the Work Programme.
• The Work Programme for the specific programme
  'Cooperation' states the following in relation to
  COST The Community's funding to COST under FP7
  is specified in the Cooperation Specific
  Programme, of which a first instalment of EUR 30
  million is foreseen in 2007. This financial
  support will be provided through a grant which
  will be paid on the basis of a grant agreement
  between the Commission and the European Science
  Foundation, the legal entity designated by COST
  as its implementing agent and communicated to the
  Commission by the General Secretariat of the
  Council.

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Aspects to be noted from the Monfret report
the Final Review Panels recommendations are
addressed to Firstly to the COST Member States

• At the Ministerial level we invite the Ministers
  to define the position and the role of COST in
  ERA given the changed context since 1971.
  Redrafting of the present inter-governmental
  regulations and mandates set down for COST would
  be appropriate, particularly to discuss the
  governance structure and responsibilities.
• A clear choice should be made to determine the
  final responsibility for the governance of COST,
  including both managerial and strategic aspects.
  In this context special attention should be given
  to the role of all stakeholders involved.
• The Panel sees two alternative options
• The COST programme should create an
  independent legal entity
• ESF should take over the full operation of
  COST including the strategy formulation and the
  linkages with Member States
• 3. In the context of the possible revision of the
  governance of COST, the Ministers from the COST
  Member States are suggested to reconsider the
  role and the composition of the CSO.

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COST Open Call experiences
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COST Open Call experiences
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COST Open Call experiences
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COST Open Call experiences
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Evolution of the number of COST Actions (210M)
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Evolution of the number of COST Actions (250M)
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COST Office proposal 2 CD p.a.
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www.cost.esf.org