For almost 50 years, the COST programme has brought together researchers to network across Europe and beyond. Over the past seven years of the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, COST has particularly focused on bridging the innovation divide between less research developed countries and ones with stronger research infrastructures. This focus has fostered brain circulation in Europe and led to tangible results: an increasing number of the follow-up projects of COST Actions include researchers from Inclusiveness Target Countries (ITCs). For Actions ending in 2019, almost half of the successful spin-off projects have included at least one widening partner; for the projects in Horizon 2020 originating in COST Actions, this percentage was more than half.
COST Actions are ideal incubators for effective research consortia. Over the four-year duration of an Action, participants have time to build the necessary networking capacity to arrive at high-quality follow-ups. This success translates into concrete numbers, with follow-ups from COST Actions attracting around EUR 480 Million in funding on a yearly basis, while the success rate of Action spin-offs in Horizon 2020 is, at 35 percent, about triple the average success rate. Through its Action stewardship approach, COST engages with Actions to stimulate these high-value impacts, while ensuring that excellent researchers, wherever they are in Europe, are always on board.
Personal testimonies from researchers
“Without COST I could have never been a finalist for the EU prize for women innovators 2020. Additionally, thanks to the cooperation in the COST Action I have received two ERC grants!”
Prof Magdalena Król, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Poland
“The COST program is fully indispensable and beneficial. It is one of the very few programs where the efficiency in my opinion reaches the level of more than 95%”
Prof. Atanas Atananssov, Head of the Joint Genomic Centre to Sofia University & Dr Pavel Bednař, head of the Department of Regional Development, Public Administration and Law Tomas Bata University, Zlin
“One must not underestimate the benefit of putting active researchers together for a few days. Magic happens. (…) I can only imagine what such an Action might mean to people with less fortunate backgrounds, it’s almost like becoming a faculty member at a top university.”
Dr Laszlo A. Koczy, Associate Professor, Senior Research Fellow, Obuda University, Keleti Faculty of Economics, Budapest
“The funding tools provided to young researchers for different activities (STMS, training schools, conference grants) are extremely useful for participants from countries like Romania, where research funds for young researchers are very limited.”
Dr Anca Nemuc, Senior Researcher, National Institute of R&D for Optoelectronics, Romania