19 November 2007 | General, President
COST gets rid of the “red ribbons”
“It is another milestone in the history of COST” said Professor Francesco Fedi, President of the COST Committee of Senior Officials (CSO), commenting the latest decision of the Committee regarding the procedures for the approval of the Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) of COST Actions.
“In 1971, the approval of the participation in the first 7 COST Actions launched that year had to be ratified by the Parliaments of the countries wishing to participate in the Actions” continued Professor Fedi “and this certainly added to the time needed for the launch of new Actions”. In 1978 the introduction of the Memorandum of Understanding made the procedure much simpler and avoided the need for Parliamentary ratification. The MoU for each Action was a formal document with the famous “red ribbons” to be signed by the representatives of the countries interested in participating in the Actions. With the growing number of the Actions, more than 200 running every year, this certainly became a rather cumbersome procedure which was regarded by the European scientific community as an unnecessary heritage of the past and in contrast with the flexibility and light management peculiar to COST”.
The COST CSO, in its latest meeting on 15 and 16 November 2007, agreed on streamlining the procedures for approval of new COST Actions and decided that the COST countries interested in participating in a COST Action confirm their participation in writing to the COST Secretariat without the need to additionally sign the relevant MoU. “After 36 years”, concluded Professor Fedi, “COST finally got rid of the red ribbons”.
