Publications

This report presents the findings of the fourth wave of the COST Association Customer Satisfaction Survey, conducted in March and April 2023.

Overall, the survey results suggest customers hold COST, its services and its tools in high regard. At the same time, it points to some areas of improvement for the organisation’s work.

Read the document to discover more.

This open access book offers a multidisciplinary and comprehensive perspective regarding the immediate and long-term effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on coworking spaces in the European Region. The current pandemic has imposed several effects on work and spaces for work. Some are immediate effects and will last for a short time (such as the closing down of the space), some will last longer (namely, the reorganisation of the space to meet the physical distancing), and some will stay for a long time (remote working and hybrid working). Although the literature on coworking spaces and the effects of the pandemic is growing fast, empirical studies are yet limited. Within this context, this book seeks a twofold aim: (i) to contribute to the fast-growing literature on coworking space and their effects at different scales; (ii) to present a multidisciplinary perspective about the effects of the yet-lasting Corona-pandemic effects on the patterns of remote working and consequently on coworking spaces, as the most diffused form of new working spaces. 

This paper produced by EurofamNet undertakes ‘a scoping study of the conceptualisation and delivery of family support in Europe’. It provides some starting points for the conceptualisation of family support in broad terms and highlights the centrality of children’s rights and family welfare perspectives to the aims and objectives of EurofamNet. It also sets out the aims, approach and design of the scoping study.

Recognising that efforts are still necessary to reckon with the heterogeneity of service delivery in family support, the internal disparities of professional cultures upon the external EurofamNet’s position of family and parenting support evaluation strategies | 6 input of evidence-based practices and the standards of an evaluation culture, this paper intends to contribute to a thorough and comprehensive position of the EuroFamNet COST Action on parenting support evaluation strategies. In what follows, this paper briefs the rationale of the evidence-based practice outlining its advances in family support services delivered in community settings. The short historical account traces how the perspectives and approaches to evaluate the putative effects of evidence-based parenting programmes also brought about an interest in the relations and linkages among research, professional practice and, more recently, policies and children and family participation.

The main purpose of the present work was to systematize the skills used in the family support workforce within a conceptual framework, based on available books and handbooks published in English and from 1995 to 2020. The selected books and chapters evidence the lack of standardized guidelines for family support workforce skills and further research and work on that sense is needed.

Compendium of national reports about the contexts, current developments, and policy actions in the area of child and family support in 27 countries across Europe. The collection throws light on the conceptualisation and delivery of Family Support in Europe, which is one of the main areas of interest within the Family Support Network (EurofamNet) funded by COST. The work helps us understand how family policy and support are offered in the different countries, and provide a detailed account of ‘provision in context’ across Europe.

Research and innovation are not isolated activities, as they involve the collective efforts of scientists working together towards a common goal. The COST Annual Report 2022 highlights how COST Actions connect researchers to advance science.

This edition depicts 2022’s main highlights, together with facts and figures, and also features numerous success stories about COST Actions and the researchers involved.

For more than 50 years, COST has been providing networking opportunities for researchers and innovators to strengthen Europe’s capacity to address scientific, technological and societal challenges.

To continue as the leading networking instrument in the European Research Area (ERA), COST has defined three priorities: 1) Promoting and spreading excellence, 2) Fostering interdisciplinary research for breakthrough science, 3) Empowering and retaining young researchers and innovators.

The COST Strategic Plan defines clear targets and Key Performance Indicators for each strategic priority. Read the document to discover more.

This open access book presents established methods of structural health monitoring (SHM) and discusses their technological merit in the current aerospace environment. While the aerospace industry aims for weight reduction to improve fuel efficiency, reduce environmental impact, and to decrease maintenance time and operating costs, aircraft structures are often designed and built heavier than required in order to accommodate unpredictable failure. A way to overcome this approach is the use of SHM systems to detect the presence of defects. This book covers all major contemporary aerospace-relevant SHM methods, from the basics of each method to the various defect types that SHM is required to detect to discussion of signal processing developments alongside considerations of aerospace safety requirements. It will be of interest to professionals in industry and academic researchers alike, as well as engineering students.