European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST Actions)

• The European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) has expanded its geographic reach by announcing a new pilot scheme to bring European and New Zealand researchers closer together.  The new scheme provides for up to ten travel grants of up to $NZD5,000 each to supplement travel and subsistence expenses for New Zealand researchers to travel to Europe, and European researchers travelling to New Zealand.

• Starting in July 2007 with an initial two-year pilot phase, the scheme focuses on six priority areas: medical and health research; agriculture; forestry; biotechnology and food; nanotechnology; information and communications technology; and environment and climate change.

• COST is an intergovernmental European initiative and an active partner in the European Research Area.  COST exists to foster cooperation between nationally-funded research activities. COST Actions are networks of scientists receiving support to enable them to cooperate, and to disseminate the results of their cooperation.  Existing COST Actions operate across a wide spectrum of scientific fields, and are often multi-disciplinary in nature.

Implementation of pilot scheme between COST and New Zealand