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What is a COST Action?
- Ever since it was founded in 1971, COST has been operating one main instrument, the COST actions.
- COST actions are science and technology networks open to researchers and stakeholders with a duration of four
years.
- COST actions are active through a range of networking tools, such as workshops, conferences, training schools,
short-term scientific missions (STSMs), and dissemination activities.
- COST contributes to reducing the fragmentation in European research investments and opening the European
Research Area to cooperation worldwide.
- As a precursor of advanced multidisciplinary research, COST plays a very important role in building a European
Research Area (ERA). It anticipates and complements the activities of the EU Frame work Programme, constituting
a “bridge” towards the scientific communities of emerging countries.
- Every COST actions has an objective, defined goals and clear deliverables. These are described in a Memorandum of
Understanding, accepted by at least five participating COST Member Countries.
- There are currently around 350 actions running in all science and technology fields organized in nine domains and one
trans-domain group covering several domains.
- Biomedicine and Molecular Biosciences
- Food and Agriculture
- Forests, their Products and Services
- Materials, Physics and Nanosciences
- Chemistry and Molecular Sciences and Technologies
- Earth System Science and Environmental Management
- Information and Communication Technologies
- Transport and Urban Development
- Individuals, Societies, Cultures and Health
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Who can participate?
Researchers can participate in COST actions based on their affiliation to an institution or organization and on geographic
location. Researchers affiliated to the following institutions can participate in COST actions :
- Government Organizations, except Intergovernmental Organizations;
- Universities and Associated Organisations;
- Business Enterprises (ranging from SMEs to multinationals);
- Private Non-Profit Organizations/NGOs (even if international);
- Standards Organizations (even if international)
How does a COST Action work?
COST actions are managed by a Management Committee (MC) which is composed of up to two representatives of each
COST Country having accepted the Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) of the action. MC Members are nominated by
the COST National Coordinators (CNC) of the COST Countries they represent. The actions MC decides upon all budgetrelated questions, devises the general actions strategy and manages the organisation of the action’s scientific and
technological activities.
They are open throughout their lifetime to new members and are adaptable in terms of internal organisation and
strategy.
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Join an Existing COST Action
There are various steps to follow to join or initiate a COST Action. It mainly depends on the location of the
institution. For institutions from the 35 COST Member Countries and one Cooperating State:
a) If your country has not yet accepted the action's Memorandum of Understanding:
contact your CNC (COST national Coordinator) who can launch your country's participation procedure in the relevant
action. Once done, the CNC can officially nominate you as a representative of your country to the MC committee.
it is also recommended that you inform the Chair of the action of your interest.
b) If your country has already accepted the action's Memorandum of Understanding,
- but has not yet nominated 2 representatives:
contact your COST National Coordinator (CNC) who can officially nominate you as a representative of your country to
the Management Committee (MC).
it is also recommended that you inform the Chair of the action of your interest.
- and has already nominated 2 representatives:
contact the action Chair for possible nomination by the Management Committee (MC) to a Working Group (WG).
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Se porter candidat au Management Committee d’une Action COST
Une nomination au Management Committee d’une Action se doit de suivre la procédure suivante :
1.
Le candidat doit adresser au coordinateur national par courrier électronique uniquement :
- Le courrier électronique d'invitation du coordinateur de l'Action ou un courrier électronique de soutien des membres
français déjà nommés
- Un courrier électronique de candidature (CV et liste de publications et travaux)
2.
Le coordinateur pourra alors procéder à la nomination, après vérification du profil du candidat. Un délai de trois
semaines est généralement nécessaire.
Antoine Mercier : Antoine.Mercier@recherche.gouv.fr
Coordinateur national et représentant français auprès de COST
Ministère de l'enseignement supérieur et de la recherche
Direction générale pour la recherche et l'innovation
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New Open Call in preparation by the COST Association : Pre-Announcement
The new Open Call - the first under the COST Association - will be published on the COST website in November 2014.
Proposals can be submitted as of January 2015.
The Open Call shall continue having the spring and summer collection dates, when all submitted proposals are gathered
and evaluated.
The next Collection Date (spring 2015) shall be specified in November 2014.
The new Proposal Template and the Guidelines for submitting COST action proposals shall be available in December
2014. You shall also be able to consult the new evaluation criteria, available on this page by end of the year.
New Rules and Procedures
The COST Association now features a new scientific organisation including new rules and procedures.
The new action Proposal Submission, Evaluation and Selection procedure is fully science and technology-driven,
emphasising the bottom-up nature of COST. The procedure is transparent, simple and fast.
- Solely Science and Technology-driven : Open to all science and technology fields, focusing on excellence, No prior
categorisation in domains of action proposals, Equal opportunities to succeed for all scientists and topics
- Simple : Only one submission stage, A single proposal, maximum 15 pages, No hearings , More user-friendly IT tools
- Transparent : Independent , Peer review evaluation , Proposal selection by internationally renowned experts in the
field(s)
- Selection : Driven by the Scientific Committee (SC), High-level experts, one per COST Member Country,
The SC selects the top-ranked proposals. The selectivity of this evaluation process is now well recognised by the scientific
community and by national research councils.
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COST Networking Tools
Researchers participating in COST Actions can embark upon a wide range of networking opportunities.
 Meetings, Workshops and Conferences
Meetings are organised by COST Management Committees in any COST country participating in the network.
They can be of different types, such as Management Committee meetings, Working Group Meetings,
Workshops and Conferences. They may be open to the whole scientific community and provide visibility
opportunities for the COST action. COST will contribute to the travel and subsistence costs of participating
scientists, and to the organisation costs of the meeting.
 Short-Term Scientific Missions (STSM)
Short-term scientific missions (STSM) are exchange visits between researchers involved in a COST action,
allowing scientists to visit an institution or laboratory in another COST country. They are aimed at fostering
collaboration, sharing new techniques and infrastructure that may not be available in other participants'
institutions or laboratories. STSM are intended especially for young researchers.
 Training Schools
COST action can share knowledge and support collaboration also through Training Schools. Training Schools
can be organised by a COST action on related research topics and can provide dissemination opportunities for
an action 's activities. Training Schools provide intensive training in emerging research topics within the
laboratories and organisations involved in the COST action. Participants are mainly, but not exclusively, young
researchers involved in COST action.
 Dissemination Activities and Publications
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350 COST actions organized in nine domains
- Biomedicine and Molecular Biosciences
- Food and Agriculture
- Forests, their Products and Services
- Materials, Physics and Nanosciences
- Chemistry and Molecular Sciences and Technologies
- Earth System Science and Environmental Management
- Information and Communication Technologies
- Transport and Urban Development
- Individuals, Societies, Cultures and Health
 Chemistry and Molecular Sciences and Technologies (CMST)
Structure and Organisation
-
The research activities in this Domain aim to develop experimental, theoretical and analytical tools to enhance
the development of chemical transformations, reactivity and function.
-
The number of participating countries to the COST Chemistry actions is on average of 19 per actions and
includes in some cases research institutes from non-COST countries (Australia, Japan, Russia, USA and Ukraine)
- The scientific activities and the selection process for acceptance of research proposals are performed in a same
way by the Management Committee of each COST Chemistry.
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 Chemistry and Molecular Sciences and Technologies (CMST)
Chemistry for life: a multidisciplinary collaboration between chemists, biologists, clinicians and agronomists
in the design and development of new products for pharmacy, medicine, public health, and agriculture,
including a more efficient and safe food production.
Manipulating molecular matter: learn how to handle, synthesize and manipulate matter at the molecular
level, understand and control its reactivity and function, develop new catalysts to control the shape, size
and properties of the product molecules; move from single molecule chemistry to supra- and
macromolecular chemistry, producing smart materials tailored for specific applications.
Energy production: shifting from oil, natural gas and coal consumption to more efficient ways of using
combustible fuels and investigate technologies based on renewable resources, in particular sunlight.
Caring for the planet: continuous improvement of the standards of living by reducing the environmental
impact of technology in order to establish a sustainable growth, develop clean technology for innovative
production, ensure increasingly accurate means for quality control, mastering ground remediation, hazard
control, preserving and maintaining cultural heritage.
Space understanding and exploitation: rationalizing processes occurring under extreme conditions in space
and interstellar media, understanding processes occurring around spacecrafts, exploiting resources of stars
and planets.
New ideas and initiatives are welcome as well as those with high interdisciplinary elements and close links
and overlaps with other domains.
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Experiences in 3 COST actions
Domain : Chemistry and Molecular Sciences and Technologies
 COST « Applied Biocatalysis: Stereoselective and Environmentally-friendly Reactions Catalysed by Enzymes»
D25 (2001-2007) : 22 countries
Member of a working group
 COST « Cascade Chemoenzymatic Processes - New Synergies Between Chemistry and Biochemistry»
CM 0701 (2008-2012) : 27 countries
Vice-chair of COST action
 COST « Sytems biocatalysis »
CM 1303 (2013-2017) : 27 countries
MC member of COST action
http://www.cost.eu/
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 Chemistry and Molecular Sciences and Technologies (CMST)
37 actions en cours en 2014
CM1401 | Our Astro-Chemical History | 26 November 2014 - 25 November 2018
CM1403 | The European upconversion network - from the design of photon-upconverting nanomaterials to biomedical
applications | 19 November 2014 - 18 November 2018
CM1402 | From molecules to crystals - how do organic molecules form crystals? (Crystallize) | 06 November 2014 - 05
November 2018
CM1306 | Understanding Movement and Mechanism in Molecular Machines | 03 June 2014 - 02 June 2018
CM1305 | Explicit Control Over Spin-states in Technology and Biochemistry (ECOSTBio) | 28 April 2014 - 27 April 2018
CM1307 | Targeted chemotherapy towards diseases caused by endoparasites | 12 March 2014 - 11 March 2018
CM1304 | Emergence and Evolution of Complex Chemical Systems | 03 December 2013 - 02 December 2017
CM1303 | Systems Biocatalysis | 20 November 2013 - 19 November 2017
CM1302 | European Network on Smart Inorganic Polymers (SIPs) | 24 October 2013 - 23 October 2017
CM1301 | Chemistry for Electron-Induced Nanofabrication (CELINA) | 23 October 2013 - 22 October 2017
CM1205 | Catalytic Routines for Small Molecule Activation (CARISMA) | 22 May 2013 - 21 May 2017
CM1206 | EXIL - Exchange on Ionic Liquids | 15 May 2013 - 14 May 2017
CM1204 | XUV/X-ray light and fast ions for ultrafast chemistry (XLIC) | 13 May 2013 - 12 May 2017
CM1207 | GLISTEN: GPCR-Ligand Interactions, Structures, and Transmembrane Signalling: a European Research
Network | 03 May 2013 - 02 May 2017
TD1208 | Electrical discharges with liquids for future applications | 11 April 2013 - 10 April 2017
…….
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CM1303 | Systems Biocatalysis | 2013 - 2017
Total : 27 countries
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CM1303 | Systems Biocatalysis | 2013 - 2017
Objectives and strategies :
- Systems Biocatalysis is a new approach consisting of organizing enzymes in vitro to generate an artificial
metabolism for synthetic purposes.
- The strategy of this key new platform deals with the analysis of enzymatic systems in vivo, the development
and discovery of new biocatalysts, and their assembly in vitro into novel synthetic metabolic pathways.
- Tasks involved are the discovery of new biocatalyst, the optimization of their function, mutual compatibility
and regulation, and the construction of a continuous flux for high efficiency.
Working group 1
New modes of creation and interconversion of chemical functionality in metabolites
Working group 2
Routes to New Key Metabolites
Working group 3
Constructing pathways towards complex lipid conjugates
Working group 4
Enzyme engineering for novel and optimized functions
Working group 5
Process intensification
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CM1303 | Systems Biocatalysis | 2013 - 2017
STSM 2014 (Short-Term Scientific Missions)
Visitor
Host
WG
Start
End
(EL)
(NL)
1
15th March 2014
14th June 2014
(IE)
(IT)
4
1st June 2014
26th June 2014
(RS)
(IE)
4
10th June 2014
22nd June 2014
(HU)
(IT)
5
30th June 2014
1st August 2014
(ES)
(DE)
3
1st July 2014
30th September 2014
(RS)
(UK)
1
4th August 2014
4th September 2014
(TR)
(NO)
4
24th August 2014
30th August 2014
(HR)
(DE)
4
25th August 2014
25th October 2014
(PT)
(SE)
4, 5
1st September 2014
30th September 2014
Training School 2014
Certosa di Pontignano, Italy, 28 May-1 June 2014
Workshops 2014
- Kick - off Workshop, Madrid, Spain, 10-11, April, 2014
- Workshop, Gent, Belgium, 15-18 september, 2014