At its last meeting, the Committee of Senior Officials (CSO) - the governing body of COST - discussed the further implementation of the decision taken by the ministers concerned regarding the provision of support in the scientific and technological field to the European Community’s foreign dimension, including the Newly Independent States. It decided to extend its support substantially to researchers from institutions in the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as Montenegro) and Europe’s “Near Neighbours”, not already members of COST. This decision will allow COST to contribute to the implementation of the European Neighbourhood Policy of the European Union. In the light of this decision, COST invites institutions from the countries concerned to consider joining COST Actions relevant to their research activities. The COST website provides detailed information about the nine Domains, as well as more than 200 running Actions.
For further information, please contact Mr. Siegel, Coordinator of the COST Cluster on Life Science (and author of this article) to obtain information on the procedure for accession to a COST Action. At the same meeting, the CSO decided on September 30, 2007 (Sunday) as the next collection date for its continuous Open Call. COST invites proposals for new COST Actions contributing to the scientific, economic, cultural or societal development of Europe. Proposals playing a precursor role for other European programmes involving young groups’ ideas are especially welcome (further details see
http://see-science.eu/goto/2198.html).

COST Strategic Workshops

Furthermore, COST invites the research community to take advantage of its recently introduced instrument: Strategic Workshops. The Strategic Workshops aim to bring researchers and decision-makers together to discuss forefront topics, principally of an inter-disciplinary nature. In doing so, they can be used in the topic’s future development and form the basis for future proposals, not only to COST but also to the framework programme and to other European organisations responsible for research networking. Proposals for Strategic Workshops focusing on the specific challenges of the Balkan region can be submitted through Mr. Siegel at any time.