Overview

Founded in 1971, European Cooperation in the Field of Scientific and Technical Research (COST) [COST05a] is an intergovernmental framework for European Cooperation in the Field of Scientific and Technical Research, allowing the coordination of nationally funded research on a European level. COST projects, designated by Actions, cover basic and pre-competitive research as well as the activities of public utility. The goal of COST is to ensure that Europe holds a strong position in the field of scientific and technical research for peaceful purposes, by increasing European cooperation and interaction within this field. COST has clearly shown its strength in non-competitive research, in pre-normative cooperation and in solving environmental and cross-border problems and problems of public utility. It has been successfully used to maximise European synergy, and has added value in research cooperation and is a useful tool to further European integration. Ease of access for institutions from non-member countries also makes COST a very interesting and successful tool for tackling topics of a truly global nature.

To emphasise that the initiative came from scientists and technical experts themselves, and from those with a direct interest in furthering international collaboration, the founding fathers of COST opted for a flexible and pragmatic approach. COST activities have in the past paved the way for community activities and its flexibility allows COST Actions to be used as a testing and exploratory field for emerging topics. Member countries participate in an la carte principle, and activities are launched on a bottom-up approach. One...