COST Association

COST Association
Name	COST Association
Formation	1971
Type	European research networking organisation
Headquarters	Brussels, Belgium
Region served	Europe
Membership	38 member countries (as of 2024)
Leader title	President
Leader name	Roberto Di Lenna

COST Association The COST Association is a European institution that supports research networking through transnational collaborative activities. It complements programmes such as Horizon 2020, Horizon Europe, and bilateral schemes by funding interdisciplinary consortia across sciences, technology, humanities and arts. Participants include researchers from institutions like Max Planck Society, CNRS, University of Cambridge, Karolinska Institutet and University of Barcelona who form short- to medium-term networks.

History

COST originated from the 1971 Decision of the Council of Western European Union members to coordinate research and development, evolving alongside organisations such as the European Commission, European Research Area, and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. During the 1980s and 1990s COST expanded membership to include countries formerly in the Eastern Bloc and actors from the Council of Europe, following political changes marked by events like the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Reforms in the 2000s aligned COST with initiatives like the Lisbon Strategy and later integration with European Research Council priorities, leading to modern governance adaptations influenced by bodies such as the European Court of Auditors.

Mission and Objectives

COST’s mission is to enable researchers and innovators to collaborate across borders through networking actions that foster knowledge exchange among institutions such as the National Institutes of Health, Fraunhofer Society, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Space Agency, and World Health Organization partners. Objectives include promoting capacity-building in countries affiliated with European University Association, accelerating translation of research into policy intersections with the European Parliament and European Commission, and supporting early-career researchers connected to networks like the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions and the European Research Council Starting Grants.

Organisation and Governance

COST is administered by a Secretariat in Brussels and overseen by the COST Committee of Senior Officials, composed of delegates from member states, with strategic guidance from an elected President and Management Committee. Governance instruments reference procedures used by institutions such as the European Commission Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, audit frameworks from the European Court of Auditors, and stakeholder engagement models seen at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Advisory bodies include panels with representatives from universities like University of Oxford, research centres such as European Bioinformatics Institute, and NGOs including Science Europe and the League of European Research Universities.

COST Actions (Networking Activities)

COST funds bottom-up, investigator-driven networking activities called Actions, which span topics mirrored in programmes by European Space Agency, European Environment Agency, World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe, UNESCO, and foundations such as the Wellcome Trust. Actions assemble participants from research organisations like ETH Zurich, Universität Wien, Sorbonne University, Politecnico di Milano, and University of Warsaw to organize workshops, training schools, short-term scientific missions, and publications. Notable thematic domains include climate studies linked to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change contributors, digital innovation connected to European Telecommunications Standards Institute stakeholders, and health research that intersects with European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control networks.

Funding and Budget

COST receives a budget appropriated by its member states and associated partners, coordinating funding flows with multilateral frameworks such as Horizon Europe and national agencies including UK Research and Innovation, Agence Nationale de la Recherche, and the German Research Foundation. Funding instruments are modest relative to large competitive grants from the European Research Council but are designed to leverage resources from institutions like European Investment Bank projects, philanthropic donors such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and public-private collaborations with companies like Siemens and Philips. Financial oversight follows practices comparable to those of the European Commission financial regulation and reporting expectations from bodies like the European Court of Auditors.

Impact and Achievements

COST Actions have produced cross-border communities that contributed to policy advice for entities like the European Commission, World Health Organization, and national ministries, and helped form consortia that later secured grants from the European Research Council and Horizon Europe. Networks supported collaborations leading to outputs in journals associated with publishers such as Nature Publishing Group, Elsevier, and Springer Nature, and facilitated training that improved researcher mobility between institutions like Imperial College London and Technische Universität München. COST’s role in enabling interdisciplinary dialogue has been cited in reports by science policy organisations, think tanks such as Bruegel, and academies including the Royal Society and Academia Europaea.

Category:European research organisations