The programme COST supports international collaboration in science and technology.

Introduction – new Actions – joining an Action – funding – Czech procedure – Inter-COST

 

Introduction

COST (European Cooperation in Scientific and Technical Research) funds primarily the so-called COST Actions – international networks that connect researchers from both the academic and private sector and focus on a particular research topic. These networks are open – new participants can join an already approved and ongoing COST Action. COST encourages interdisciplinarity and participation of young researchers.

COST Actions are often recommended as an excellent tool for building international research contacts.

COST Actions funds only “networking” activities (e.g. meetings, workshops and conferences, short-term scientific missions, training schools, virtual mobility...), but not research itself. Duration of a COST Action is 4 years.

COST – official website.
What are COST Actions? on the COST website.

Proposing a new international COST Action

There is usually 1 deadline each year for the submission of proposals of new COST Actions. Proposals are submitted electronically via the portal e-COST.

Minimal requirements for a new COST Action:

  • At least 7 Full or Cooperating Member Countries must participate in a proposal.
  • At least 50%of the participating countries must be the so-called “Inclusiveness Target Countries” (ITCs) – Czechia is one of these.

Czech researchers involved in a proposal that is successful must consequently go through the Czech national procedure of joining a COST Action.

Open call for proposals of new Actions on the COST website.

If you participate in a proposal of a new COST Action, please, inform the head of your department and the Project Management Department (Martina Holíková, martina.holikova@natur.cuni.cz; Ludmila Součková, ludmila.souckova@natur.cuni.cz).

Follow also the Funding opportunities news, where internal guidelines and deadlines are announced.

 

Joining an ongoing COST Action

Ways how to participate in an ongoing COST Action

As a Management Committee Member

  • For each Action, there can be maximally 2 Management Committee Members nominated from one COST member country.
  • Management Committee Members are nominated by the COST National Coordinator, who needs a tacit validation by the Action’s management. The Czech COST National Coordinator is affiliated to the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MEYS).
  • A researcher from a Czech institution who wants to be nominated as a Management Committee Member must go through the Czech national procedure of joining a COST Action – they must describe, how exactly they will participate in the Action activities in a document “PROJECT PROPOSAL, JOIN AN EXISTING COST ACTION” that must be confirmed by the legal representative of their institution; and their intended participation in the Action must be approved, via a document “COST MC Letter”, by the head of the respective COST Action (Main Proposer in case of a newly approved Action, or Action Chair in case of a running Action). Both documents must be sent to MEYS.
  • Based on these two documents, the Czech COST National Coordinator nominates the researcher to the Management Committee of the respective Action.
  • After going through this national procedure, the researcher becomes eligible to apply for funding from Czech programme Inter-Excellence II, sub-programme Inter-COST.

As a Working Group Member

  • A researcher can ask the management of the Action to join the Action as a Working Group Member. Such an application is submitted via the e-COST portal. It might be advisable to contact beforehand the management of the Action, e.g., the Leader of the particular Working Group, and discuss possibilities of participation of the applying researcher. Contact details of the members of the Action management are available in the database of COST Actions.
  • If the researcher (from a Czech institution) wants to become eligible to apply for funding from Czech programme Inter-Excellence II, sub-programme Inter-COST, they must also go through the Czech national procedure of joining a COST Action – see above.

As an ad-hoc participant of an event or activity organised by the Action

  • Participation as an ad-hoc participant is subject to invitation by the Action’s management.
  • When such an opportunity is open to those interested, it is usually announced by the Action on its website (in case of already running Actions, the link to their website is often available in the database of COST Actions) or in the news on COST website.

Database of all COST Actions.
How to Participate in an ongoing Action on the COST website.

Funding of “networking” activities of a COST Action

  • Within each COST Action, there is one legal entity selected to be the Grant Holder.
  • The Grant Holder distributes directly (via e-COST) to individual participants (people) the financial contributions to cover their travelling and other eligible costs connected with their participation in the activities of the Action.
  • If e.g. a workshop or a summer school is organised by the Action, the institution organising such an event receives from the Grant Holder a financial contribution from the budget of the Action.
  • It may happen that the budget of the Action isn’t sufficient to cover travel costs of all participants of an event organised by the Action. In such a case, (some) participants must cover their travel costs from their own resources.

See also Annotated rules for COST Actions.
But if you find it difficult to discover any useful answers there, I wouldn’t be surprised.
Oh, COST Vademecum, you are sorely missed!

Czech national procedure of joining a COST Action

This procedure must be followed by researchers from Czech institutions who want to participate in a COST Action as a Management Committee Member or to participate in another way (e.g. as a Working Group Member) and be eligible to apply for funding from the Czech programme Inter-COST (see below). This applies to those who participated in a successful proposal of a new COST Action as well as to those who are joining an ongoing Action.

Following documents must be sent to the Czech COST National Coordinator (at the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports – MŠMT):

  • (1) The document PROJECT PROPOSAL, JOIN AN EXISTING COST ACTION (“partial project”) describing how the research of the Czech participant will contribute to or fit into the scheme of the particular COST Action. This “partial project” must bear the stamp and signature of the legal representative of the institution to which the Czech participant is affiliated.
  • (2) The document COST MC Letter in which the head of the respective COST Action (Main Proposer in case of a newly approved Action, or Action Chair in case of a running Action) expresses their agreement with the “partial project”.

About COST on MŠMT website (in Czech)
– including a description of the Czech national procedure of joining a COST Action
(“Procedura přijímání projektu COST v ČR”).

Contact point for this national procedure at the Faculty of Science: Romana Hogenová.

 

Support in Czechia: Inter-COST

Researchers from Czech institutions that are successfully involved in a COST Action and have gone through the Czech national procedure are eligible to apply for research funding from the Czech programme Inter-Excelence II, sub-programme Inter-COST.
(In recent years, the Inter-COST call was usually announced in early December with a deadline in January of in early February, and applicants had to have already completed the Czech national procedure for joining a COST Action on the day of the call announcement.)

Inter-Excelence II website (in Czech).

 

Do you think some information should be here, but isn’t?
Did you find a mistake?
Please, let me know at ludmila.souckova@natur.cuni.cz.

 

Last update 19. 6. 2025.