Publications

This book is open access, which means that you have free and unlimited access.
Relevant for the UN Sustainable Development Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities.
Provides insights and examples from the pan-european restore COST Action working groups.
Presents evidence for socio-cultural benefits of Regenerative Design in built environments.

This open access book is based on work from the COST Action “RESTORE – REthinking Sustainability TOwards a Regenerative Economy”, and highlights how sustainability in buildings, facilities and urban governance is crucial for a future that is socially just, ecologically restorative, and economically viable, for Europe and the whole planet. In light of the search for fair solutions to the climate crisis, the authors outline the urgency for the built environment sector to implement adaptation and mitigation strategies, as well as a just transition. As shown in the chapters, this can be done by applying a broader framework that enriches places, people, ecology, culture, and climate, at the core of the design task – with a particular emphasis on the benefits towards health and resilient business practices.

This book is one step on the way to a paradigm shift towards restorative sustainability for new and existing buildings. The authors want to promote forward thinking and multidisciplinary knowledge, leading to solutions that celebrate the richness of design creativity. In this vision, cities of the future will enhance users’ experience, health and wellbeing inside and outside of buildings, while reconciling anthropic ecosystems and nature. A valuable resource for scientists and students in environmental sciences and architecture, as well as policy makers, practitioners and investors in urban and regional development.

Why to publish a handbook focused on Underground Built Heritage valorisation? Why is important to transform tangible and intangible components of underground spaces into active values for local communities? Can researchers, professionals and decision-makers work together to devise a common perspective of innovation? These pages aim at providing a first set of answers, with backgrounds, research’s results, and elements for an operative framework. All different contributions are results from the First Training School organised in the framework of the COST Action CA18110, Underground4Value. The action aimed to put together experts, practitioners, and local officers, for experimenting shared approaches and making Underground Built Heritage sites as fulcrum of activities involving the whole society. To that scope, theoretical, and methodological chapters deal with the issues of defining instruments for management, evaluation and decision-making processes, and stimulating local communities’ engagement and empowerment. Four case studies are presented, by general overviews and reports from scientific missions. Finally, trainees’ research groups described their views and ideas for the case studies’ valorisation. The authors come from several different European, and neighbour countries, bringing various disciplinary competences and professional experiences.

With a challenging year and many initiatives taking place, this COST Annual Report 2020 highlights the positive developments that occurred as part of the Programme, as well as how  COST Actions have acted and collaborated on  COVID-19 research.

Inside are key facts and figures from the year, as well as success stories demonstrating the importance of COST for careers and scientific networks.

The European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) celebrates its 50-year anniversary.

This publication offers an extensive overview of COST in the last half century. It is a unique opportunity
to channel the voices of researchers and innovators both past and present through success stories,
testimonials and key milestones.

The recent introduction and spread of African swine fever (ASF) into Europe and Asia has shown that an integrated, multidisciplinary effort is needed to tackle this disease and the complex challenges it poses. This book presents practical guidelines on surveillance for detection of ASF virus, how to prevent outbreaks in the domestic pig sector through biosecurity and cleaning and disinfection routines, including in backyard holdings, and how to control and eradicate this disease in wild boar. Information on pathological lesions and diagnostic practices are provided to support practitioners. Virus infection mechanisms and the consequent host immune response are reported together with an overview on the status of vaccine and treatment development. Information on ASF epidemiology and the European wild boar and domestic pig populations is presented to assist breeders, wildlife managers and policy makers in designing practices aimed at preventing, or controlling and eradicating, this disease. The book provides currently available knowledge in a single place, and identifies knowledge gaps, prompting policy makers and funding bodies to support the scientific community in investigating the gaps.

Ever since its development in the early 1990’s, the Internet has become highly pervasive across most of the civilised world. While the majority of Internet users take advantage of its many positive uses (including professional and recreational ones), some individuals can develop Problematic Use of the Internet (which we will refer to as PUI). This term encompasses a wide range of repetitive disabling behaviors characterized by compulsivity and addiction. These include, but are not limited to, Internet gaming, compulsive online sexual behaviors/ cyberpornography, Internet-related buying or shopping disorder, Internet-related gambling disorder, cyberbullying, cyberchondria, and social media/network forum use, among others.

Although PUI affects a minority of individuals who routinely use the Internet, several reports have documented a series of unhealthy lifestyles and medical disturbances which are thought to represent the consequences of severe forms of PUI, especially when it comes to youth. People affected by PUI and their family members often do not know about the signs and symptoms of this condition. For example, they do not know how to recognize PUI, or whom to go to for help, and often they do not know whether this is a treatable condition and/or how to manage it. Because of this, National Health Authorities around the World are concerned about the health and societal costs that PUI may have. Some researchers are starting to consider particular forms of PUI as a serious and disabling form of behavioral addiction.

Edited by the COST Action CA16207
In collaboration with the International College of Obsessive Compulsive Spectrum Disorders (ICOCS) and the International Obsessive Compulsive and Related Disorders Research Network of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (OCRN-ECNP)

The COST Cross-Cutting Activity (CCA) on Science Communication brings together outstanding expertise
from over 50 organisations across EU Member States and beyond. Working to raise awareness of science communication and develop best practices for policy makers to stimulate research on science communication in Europe.

For this report a selective group of CCA Members were invited to provide their perspective on the role and relevance of science communication during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Common for the contributions are their focus on new approaches to science-based communication as an essential prerequisite for addressing contemporary health challenges as they cut across disciplines and stakeholders.

COST Action ‘Citizen Science to Promote Creativity, Scientific Literacy, and Innovation throughout Europe‘. This open access book discusses how the involvement of citizens into scientific endeavors is expected to contribute to solve the big challenges of our time, such as climate change and the loss of biodiversity, growing inequalities within and between societies, and the sustainability turn. The field of citizen science has been growing in recent decades. Many different stakeholders from scientists to citizens and from policy makers to environmental organisations have been involved in its practice. In addition, many scientists also study citizen science as a research approach and as a way for science and society to interact and collaborate. This book provides a representation of the practices as well as scientific and societal outcomes in different disciplines. It reflects the contribution of citizen science to societal development, education, or innovation and provides and overview of the field of actors as well as on tools and guidelines. It serves as an introduction for anyone who wants to get involved in and learn more about the science of citizen science.

The book has been initiated within the COST Action CA16222 entitled Wider Impacts and Scenario Evaluation of Autonomous and Connected Transport (WISE-ACT).

Policy Implications of Autonomous Vehicles, Volume Five in the Advances in Transport Policy and Planning series, systematically reviews policy relevant implications of AVs and the associated possible policy responses, and discusses future avenues for policy making and research. It comprises 13 chapters discussing: (a) short-term implications of AVs for traffic flow, human-automated bus systems interaction, cyber-security and safety, cybersecurity certification and auditing, non-commuting journeys; (b) long-term implications of AVs for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and energy, health and well-being, data protection, ethics, governance; (c) implications of AVs for the maritime industry and urban deliveries; and (d) overall synthesis and conclusions.