Join an Action
There are various steps to follow to join or initiate a COST Action. It mainly depends on the location of the institution.
For institutions from the 36 COST countries:
a) If your country has not yet accepted the Action's Memorandum of Understanding:
- contact your CNC who can launch your country's participation procedure in the relevant Action (only possible if national funding for the Actions’ activity is available). Once done, the CNC can officially nominate you as a representative of your country to the MC committee.
- it is also recommended that you inform the Chair of the Action of your interest.
b) If your country has already accepted the Action's Memorandum of Understanding,
- but has not yet nominated 2 representatives:
- contact your COST National Coordinator (CNC) who can officially nominate you as a representative of your country to the Management Committee (MC).
- it is also recommended that you inform the Chair of the Action of your interest.
- and has already nominated 2 representatives:
- contact the Action Chair for possible nomination by the Management Committee (MC) to a Working Group (WG).
For institutions from non-COST countries:
Scientists from non-COST countries can be reimbursed from the Action's budget under the condition that the scientist has been formally invited as an “invited expert” for a specific meeting.
Furthermore, researchers from non-COST country institutions can participate in COST Actions on the basis of mutual benefit (see Vademecum – Non-COST Institutions), to be approved by the JAF on a case-by-case basis. The COST Office does not reimburse participants from non-COST country institutions except in the case of formally approved institutions from Near Neighbour countries and provided funds are available.
Non-COST 'near neighbouring countries' are Balkan countries (Albania, Montenegro); Mediterranean countries (Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, The Palestinian Authority, Syria and Tunisia) and Eastern European countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine).
In addition, COST has signed reciprocal agreements with Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa for their institutions to participate in COST Actions. Detailed information is available on the reciprocal agreements page.
