European COoperation in Science and Technology Rita Ward National Coordinator Presentation to UCD Humanities Institute 20 th October 2010 1
What is COST? (2010 name change) 1971 - Ministerial Conference, Brussels: launching of COST, a Framework for coordinating nationally funded research in Europe European COoperation in the field of Scientific and Technical research Participation 35 COST Member States and 1 cooperating state International organisations and research institutions from non-cost countries The European Commission through the Framework Programme COST Actions Networked research projects 2
COST characteristics Co-ordination through cooperation in networks Pan-European Multi-disciplinary National financing of researchers and projects national responsibility Equal access / Open Call Building bridges Bottom-up no fixed programme Flexible participation join in if you are interested Interdisciplinary Exploratoria Enabling agent focus on younger researchers Open to global cooperation 3
COST Countries The 27 EU Member States EFTA Member States Iceland Norway Switzerland Acceding & Candidate Countries Croatia FYR of Macedonia (FYROM) Turkey Potential Candidate Countries Republic of Serbia COST Co-operating States Israel Bosnia & Herzegovina ( May 2009) 4
Organisations from non-cost countries May participate on an Action by Action basis given: there is mutual S&T benefit the CSO approves (following MC and DC approval) participation is confirmed by an exchange of letters between the organisation and the CSO non-cost institutions may not vote in the MC 5
TUNISIA GEORGIA PAPUA NEW GUINEA COST Actions: global participation in 2008 Canada (20) Cuba (1) USA (29) BELARUS Bosnia & Ukraine (16) Herzegovina (2) Moldova (3) Andorra (1) Georgia (5) Albania (1) Azerbaijan (1) Morocco (2) China (7) ALGERIA Palestinian auth. (1) Tunisia (3) EGYPT Algeria (3) Vietnam (1) Egypt (3) Russia (50) Japan (13) Rep of Korea (4) Hong Kong (1) Colombia (1) India (1) Malaysia (1) COST countries Brazil (1) Neighbouring countries Reciprocal agreements countries Argentina (4) South Africa (4) Australia (34) New Zealand (14) 227 participations in 89 Actions (30 countries) 6
GEORGIA SRI LANKA PAPUA NEW GUINEA COST Actions: global participation (Status April 2010) Canada (19) Belarus (4) Russia (44) Mexico (2) Colombia (2) USA (42) Albania (3) Andorra (1) Morocco (6) Ukraine (18) Moldova (4) Georgia (7) Lebanon (5) Armenia (3) China (4) Tunisia (9) Palestinian auth. (1) EGYPT Pakistan (1) Algeria (1) UAE (1) Egypt (7) Saudi Arabia (1) Sudan (1) India (5) Singapore (2) Mauritius (1) MALAYSIA Japan (11) Rep of Korea (4) Hong Kong (2) COST countries Neighbouring countries Reciprocal agreements countries Chile (1) Argentina (7) Brazil (4) Uruguay (1) South Africa (23) Australia (68) New Zealand (41) 356 participations in 129 Actions (36 countries) 7
COST Financing 8
What is funded by COST? COST Actions: Nationally funded projects (min. 5 participating countries) with a joint work programme receive finance for: Science management meetings Scientific workshops and seminars Short Term Scientific Missions (STSMs) Training Schools and Research Conferences Dissemination Average funding about 100 000 per year per Action, (typically for four years) Strategic Workshops: to explore future scientific or societal needs, support policy developments or initiate new activities 9
COST Structure Council COST Secretariat COMMITTEE OF SENIOR OFFICIALS (CSO) COST OFFICE COST National Coordinators 10 COST Domain Committees.. F&A... COST Actions (~240) MC Action WGs WORKING GROUPS (NETWORKS) ~30.000 researchers Scientific Domain MC = Management Committee 10
COST Scientific & Technical Domains (1) (June 2010 May 2014) 10 Domain Committees Biomedicine and Molecular Biosciences (BMBS) Dr Ian Marison, DCU Chemistry and Molecular Sciences & Technologies (CMST) Prof. Patrick Guiry, UCD Earth System Science & Environmental Management (ESSEM) Dr John Sweeney, NUI-Maynooth Food & Agriculture (FA) Forests, their Products and Services (FPS) Dr Charles M Spillane, UCC Dr Alistair Pfeifer, COFORD 11
COST Scientific & Technical Domains (2) (June 2010 May 2014) 10 Domain Committees (cont) Individuals, Society, Culture & Health (ISCH) Dr Marc Caball, UCD (Chair) Ms Dipti Pandya, IRCHSS Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) Dr Miguel Ponce de Leon, WIT Materials, Physical & Nanosciences (MPNS) Dr Denis Dowling, UCD Transport & Urban Development (TUD) Transdomain (TD) Dr. Henk van der Kamp, DIT Dr Daniel Kelly, TCD 12
The role of the Domain Committees (DCs) Assessment of preliminary proposals in the Open Call Monitoring of Actions in progress Evaluation of completed Actions The role of the Management Committees (MCs) Supervises and coordinates the implementation of the Action Each signatory has one vote, Composed of: Maximum 2 representatives of each signatory Country One representative of any non-cost institution admitted to participate Representatives of the COST Office and Invited experts Managing the Action s budget Submit the annual work and budget plan Progress Report within a given deadline Contribute to the Domains Annual Review Meeting to be organised 13
Life Sciences Natural Sciences Science in Society BMBS BMBS FA FA FPS FPS CMST CMST ESSEM MPNS MPNS ICT ICT ISCH ISCH TUD TUD Trans Domain Proposals 14
The Open Call System Open Call = Thematically open (introduced in March 2006) Encourages interdisciplinary proposals Improves transparency Ensures quality Furthers competitiveness Emphasis on Early Stage researchers: their joint efforts bring improved recognition Selection criteria are public Specific collection dates (i.e. 25 March & 23 September 2011) 2-stage process / peer reviewed Successful COST Actions proposals can expect to start activities within 9 months after the collection date 15
COST Open Calls Collection Date Applications Full Approved New Proposals Actions 31 st May 2006 707 (824) 79 CSO Nov 06 39 28 th Feb 2007 406 (411) 75 CSO Nov 07 25 30 th Sep 2007 475 76 CSO Jun 08 25 28 th Mar 2008 386 (415) 79 CSO Nov 08 30 26 th Sep 2008 378 79 CSO May 09 30 27 th Mar 2009 481 77 CSO Dec 09 30 25 th Sep 2009 468 81 CSO May 10 30 16
COST Action Life Cycle Open Call Collection Date Two Stage Process (6 months) Implementation (4 years) Dissemination (x years) Assessment DC assesses proposals DC adopts draft MoU Monitoring Evaluation CSO approves draft MOU 1st MC Meeting 5 countries sign MOU time 17
COST Open Call process Selection process Preliminary Proposals: CD5 26-09-2008 (378, 5) 09-10-2008 07-11-2008 14-11-2008 CD6 27-03-2009 (481,12) 15-04-2009 13-05-2009 15-05-2009 CD7 25-09-2009 (469,15)) 12-10-2009 06-11-2009 13-11-2009 CD8 26-03-2010 (468) 13-04-2010 11-05-2010 14-05-2010 18 Eligibility Check Eligibility Check Allocation to Domains anonymised distribution Electronic Rating Electronic Rating Automatic Ranking Automatic Ranking Filtering of the Proposals ranked by the DCs BMBS Collection Date Collection Date Invitation of top 80 for Full Proposals CMST ESSEM FA FPS ICT ISCH MPNS TUD TDP - SAB 1 week 3 weeks 3 days Minimum time span
COST Open Call process Selection process Full Proposals: 19 Establishment of External Expert Panels Deadline Full Proposals Deadline Full Proposals Rating by EEP in panel meetings in Brussels Presentation of proposals Presentation of proposals Ranking by DCs Ranking by DCs Meeting of DC chairs Meeting of DC chairs Final List for approval Final List for approval JAF Approval by the CSO Approval by the CSO Start of the new Action Start of the new Action 10 weeks 2 weeks 2 weeks 2 weeks 4 weeks CD5 16-01-2009 27-02-2009 20-03-2009 03-05-2009 29-05-2009 CD6 31-07-2009 11-09-2009 02-10-2009 08-10-2009 02-12-2009 CD7 15-01-2010 12-02-2010 19-03-2010 25-03-2010 24-05-2010 CD8 30-07-2010 02-09-2010 01-10-2010 07-10-2010 01-12-2010 Minimum time span Dates
COST funded activities In 2009 COST supported:- 242 COST Actions 900 scientific workshops and meetings (4.3 per working day over the year) with more than 29 500 participants 1200 STSMs with an average duration of 3 weeks (5.6 STSMs starting every working day over the year) 90 Training Schools with more than 2000 funded participants 101 high ranking publications 20
Current COST Actions with Irish Participation ICT 21 7 7 ISCH 14 3 3 BMBS 13 6 6 CMST 18 10 9 ESSEM 23 5 5 FA 20 10 8 FFP 15 7 6 MPNS 19 2 2 TUD 9 1 1 TD 11 11 8 62 UCD participation on MC in 55 COST Actions Total Actions 163 (68%) (to end September 2010) Approx 240 Actions ongoing 21
COST Open Call for proposals COST invites researchers throughout Europe to submit proposals for research networks and use this unique opportunity to exchange knowledge and to embark on new European perspectives. www.cost.eu/opencall This continuous call is thematically open. Proposals from all Scientific Domains are welcome. The next collection date for preliminary proposals is 25 March 2011. 22
COST future evolution FP7 (2007-2013) In May 2010, mid-term evaluation report (Annexe II Cooperation) recommended to increase budget to EUR 250 million from EUR 210 million. (Max was 80 million from FP6) Increasing the number of Actions to 260 Increased involvement in existing COST Activities: Pilot schemes extended to June 2014 (Australia 12 visits and New Zealand 10/yr) Pilot scheme with South Africa to June 2014 (20 visits/year) Discussion with Argentina for a pilot scheme Joint activities (COST-ESF) High Level Research Conference ; Frontiers of Science Workshops; Strategic/Exploratory Workshops and Interdisciplinary Science Initiatives 23
COST Issues in 2010 Governance & legal status - COST Office Association established 8 th June 2010 COST Ministerial Conference 14-15 June (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) Global participation in COST Apr 2010:-356 participations in 129 Actions (36 countries) 24
Contacts COST Office 149 avenue Louise, 1050 Brussels, Belgium Tel: +32 (0)2 533 3800 Fax: +32 (0)2 533 3890 E-mail: office@cost.eu Website: http://www.cost.eu COST National Coordinator Rita Ward Enterprise Ireland Tel: 01-7272767 E-mail: rita.ward@enterprise-ireland.com 25