Participants planning to submit a proposal for a COST Action will need to refer to the SESA guidelines and to the Open Call Announcement available on the Documents and Guidelines page.

How to apply

Proposals for new COST Actions can be submitted to our annual Open Call via e-COST, our dedicated grant management tool. Once the deadline (collection date) has been reached, all applications are evaluated based on clear criteria.

COST Actions are bottom-up and can be on any topic, however they must fulfill certain criteria in order to be approved, such as including researchers from at least seven COST Member countries, half of whom come from our Inclusiveness Target Countries (ITC). 

Following a thorough evaluation and selection process, the decision for funding a proposal is taken by the COST Committee of Senior Officials (CSO) within eight months from the collection date. Successful proposals are approved to become COST Actions and can expect to kick-off within three months after approval.

Funding networking activities

European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) creates open spaces where people and ideas can grow.

COST funds interdisciplinary research networks called COST Actions. These Actions bring together researchers, innovators and other professionals including industry specialists, who are based in Europe and beyond, to collaborate on research topics for a period of 4 years.

The funding a COST Action receives covers the expenses of networking activities rather than research and as such is used to organise and fund events, Short-term Scientific Missions, Training Schools, communication activities, and virtual networking tools. 

Benefits

Participation in COST Actions has led to significant results and follow-up in terms of the number of proposals submitted for collaborative research in Framework Programmes, with a success rate which more than triple the average success rates for these programmes (37% success rate). By funding networking, COST acts as a pre-portal for further research and innovation funding such as Horizon Europe, the European Union’s Framework Programme for research and innovation.

For more information, please visit the COST Actions 2023 Call page