Provision of Scientific, Technical and Administrative Management of COST (COST II)

Framework: FP7 — Cooperation
Programme: General Activities
Theme: European Cooperation in Science and Technology
Destination: COST
Action type: Coordination and support actions
Countries involved: France
Call:  (FP7-2007-COST, 2007)
Start date: 2007-06-02
End date: 2015-01-01
Duration (months): 91.0
Total project cost (EUR): 280086352.07
EU funding (EUR): 250000000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This EC-ESF COST II Grant Agreement is meant to provide support to COST over the duration of the 7th Framework Programme, i.e. at least 91 months in total, as defined in the Specific Programme “Cooperation”. It is implemented through an initial period from 2 June 2007 to 1 June 2008 followed by yearly amendments to cover the whole duration of FP7. COST is a unique means for European researchers to jointly develop their own ideas and new initiatives across all scientific disciplines through trans-European networking of nationally funded research activities. Based on a European intergovernmental framework for cooperation in science and technology, COST has contributed since its creation 40 years ago to closing the gap between science, policy makers and society throughout Europe and beyond. COST's mission is to enable, through a “bottom-up” approach open to all science and technology domains including interdisciplinary, new and emergent fields, break-through scientific developments leading to new concepts and products and thereby contribute to strengthen Europe’s research and innovation capacities. COST, as an integral part of the ERA, is putting particular efforts in rein-forcing its activities and impact in European countries where excellent researchers need to gain visibility at European and global level by con-necting them throughout Europe, building trust, and contributing to strengthen their capacities. COST is governed by the COST Committee of Senior Officials (CSO), which is composed of representatives of 35 COST Member Countries (plus one cooperating state) and elects its President for a renewable mandate of three years. COST is financed by the EU through a budget from the Framework Pro-grammes for research, technological development and demonstration activities and has been implemented since 2003 by the European Science Foundation (ESF) as implementing agent through a Grant Agreement signed with the European Commission. The ESF supports COST in the execution of its activities through the COST Office, guaranteeing professional management. The COST Office is exclusively dedicated to the implementation of the CSO decisions by ensuring the scientific and technical management of COST networking, strategic and other activities; it provides support to the COST CSO on a continuous basis. Under the 7th Framework Programme (FP7) the “COST II Grant Agree-ment” entered into force on 2 June 2007 and is amended yearly. The amendments 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 included revisions of work packages in the original Grant Agreement with the aim of updating them through optimising efficiency, increasing quality assurance, further focusing the science and technology networking activities and enhancing scientific and technological inter-disciplinarity as well as through promot-ing outreach activities to raise public awareness on COST. Following the successful Mid-Term Evaluation report in 2010, the funding has increased up to 250 Mio.

Keywords: cost esf