  We look for least energy solutions to the cooperative systems of coupled
Schr\"odinger equations \begin{equation*} \left\{ \begin{array}{l} -\Delta u_i
+ \lambda_i u_i = \partial_iG(u)\quad \mathrm{in} \ \mathbb{R}^N, \ N \geq 3,\\
u_i \in H^1(\mathbb{R}^N), \\ \int_{\mathbb{R}^N} |u_i|^2 \, dx \leq \rho_i^2
\end{array} \right. i\in\{1,\dots,K\} \end{equation*} with $G\ge0$, where
$\rho_i>0$ is prescribed and $(\lambda_i, u_i) \in \mathbb{R} \times H^1
(\mathbb{R}^N)$ is to be determined, $i\in\{1,\dots,K\}$. Our approach is based
on the minimization of the energy functional over a linear combination of the
Nehari and Poho\v{z}aev constraints intersected with the product of the closed
balls in $L^2(\mathbb{R}^N)$ of radii $\rho_i$, which allows to provide general
growth assumptions on $G$ and to know in advance the sign of the corresponding
Lagrange multipliers. We assume that $G$ has at least $L^2$-critical growth at
$0$ and Sobolev subcritical growth at infinity. The more assumptions we make on
$G$, $N$, and $K$, the more can be said about the minimizers of the energy
functional. In particular, if $K=2$, $N\in\{3,4\}$, and $G$ satisfies further
assumptions, then $u=(u_1,u_2)$ is normalized, i.e., $\int_{\mathbb{R}^N}
|u_i|^2 \, dx=\rho_i^2$ for $i\in\{1,2\}$.
