For 50 years, COST laid the foundations for scientific cooperation at European level and has since then involved more than 500,000 researchers in networking activities.
“COST has proven to be the leading open networking tool in the ERA creating open spaces for the free circulation of researchers and ideas, to advance knowledge and innovation,” says COST Director Dr. Ronald de Bruin.
With 19 Members in 1971, COST quickly grew over the years with the addition of 19 members, one Cooperative Member, and one Partner Member. See COST’s timeline.
In 2013, COST was officially established as the “COST Association.” From then onwards it was referred to as COST, therefore reinforcing its mission to provide bottom-up, open, inclusive, and interdisciplinary networking opportunities for researchers and innovators from all areas of science and technology (S&T) in order to strengthen Europe’s capacity to address scientific, technological, and societal challenges.
With only seven “COST Actions” at the beginning, COST is currently funding 291 Actions for a period of four years. Easy entry point for researchers, COST Actions form the perfect environment to create follow-up consortia and spin-off projects in Horizon Europe.
The journey continued when new complementary networking activities saw the light in 2017, namely COST Connect, COST Academy, COST Cross-Cutting Activities, and the pilot of the COST Innovators’ Grant. Following that, countless of new opportunities flourished to make researchers grow through networking and knowledge sharing, thereby continuing to enhance COST’s impact on society at large.
COST has always fostered capacity building and increased brain circulation in Europe and beyond, by providing networking and leadership opportunities for emerging talents, which in turn strengthens and expands excellent S&T communities.
The 50th anniversary is an excellent opportunity to reflect on our past achievements, while assessing what lies ahead in the future– and there is plenty!
Find the new publication “50 Years of Research Networks” here (pdf).
Visit the new website celebrating COST 50 years here.
Stay tuned to discover more about COST 50 years initiatives and follow them on their social media channels with the hashtag: #COST50years.
Source: COST Association