On Thursday 24 January, researchers and innovators attended the COST Info Day, held at The Higher Council for Science and Technology in Amman, in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, to discover more about COST activities and international cooperation.
Science and technology is one of the fastest developing economic sectors within the country. As a result, growth is occurring across multiple industries, including nuclear technology and information and communications technology (ICT), the latter of which accounted for more than 84,000 jobs and contributed 12% of GDP in 2014.
During the Info Day, attendees learnt more about the work of COST, the importance and impact of networking and how COST Actions promote and spread excellence within research and development. Practical advice was given to attendees on how they could participate in currently running Actions or propose their own.
Personal experiences:
Dr Shreen Nusair and Prof. Tareq Hussein shared their personal experiences of participating within COST Actions.
“Participation in the COST Action brought opportunities which I would never have had without. It allowed my to get in touch with top-notch laboratories in Europe which was crucial for my scientific experiments.” Dr Shreen Nusair
“COST is about getting ideas and sharing ideas. COST allowed me and my students to get the international experience and network we need in order to advance our career.” Prof. Tareq Hussein
Ronald de Bruin, Director of COST Association stated during the event, “COST is open to every researcher in the world. In line with the ambitions of the European Commissions ‘Open to the World’ policy, we reach out to the research and innovation community in Jordan, who can as a Near Neighbour Country, join our networking activities. With this Info Day we want to promote our networking tools and encourage Jordanian researchers to participate”
Jordanian researchers from 6 institutions currently participate in 9 COST Actions.
CA15132 – The comet assay as a human biomonitoring tool
CA15206 – Payments for Ecosystem Services (Forests for Water)
CA15223 – Modifying plants to produce interfering RNA
CA15226 – Climate-smart forestry in mountain regions
CA16123 – Safety culture and risk management in agriculture
CA16202 – International network to encourage the use of monitoring and forecasting dust products
CA17107 – European Network to connect research and innovation efforts on advanced smart textiles
CA18125 – Advanced engineering and research of aerogels for environment and life sciences