1. COST Ministerial Conference
Bratislava, 21 September 2016

2. Prof. Peter Plavčan
Minister of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic

3. Dr Angeles Rodríguez Peña
President of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST)

4. European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST)
Today’s perspectives and future outlook

5. Key facts Intergovernmental organisation
Largest framework for transnational coordination in science and technology - 37 member states
Spanning scientific disciplines, countries, sectors and multiple stakeholders
A building block of Europe’s research world for more than 45 years, involving half a million scientists over this period

6. Key facts (cont’d) European at heart but with global reach
Sharing, spreading, disseminating knowledge
Bridging nationally research investments
Providing equal opportunities and removing bottlenecks
Costumer-focused
Flexible with light administration
Clear and long standing European added value

7. Video Clip ‘COST today’

8. Key figures (yearly) 300 COST Actions 45.000 researchers involved
euro per COST Action
euro budget

9. Key words Empowerment Leveraging diversity Boosting excellence
Providing freedom and independence
Everybody is equal
Interdisciplinarity
Mobility

10. Video Testimonials

11. Providing a wealth of opportunities
Connections and relationships
Personal development - soft skills
Management and leadership expertise
Springboard for jobs in academia and private sector
Learning other ‘scientific codes and languages’

12. Leading the way Bottom-up Bridge building across
Scientific disciplines
Academia and public/private sector
Cultures and nationalities
Science and policy
Science and citizens
Strong multidisciplinary element

13. European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts COST Action 70
Surface air temperature anomaly for the 12 months ending August relative to the average for Source: ERA-Interim. (Credit: ECMWF, Copernicus Climate Change Service)(Credit: ECMWF, Copernicus Climate Change Service)

14. Dreaming mobile communications
19 COST Actions since 1980s
GSM standard
‘COST 231 model’
Disaster resilience
5G generation
On-body and in-body networks
Mobile phones in 1926

15. Current Issues Limited visibility of COST
Contractual model with European Commission currently not adapted to specific nature of network funding
Budget constraints prevents excellent bottom-up demands for networking

16. COST Future Outlook

17. Video ‘Challenges’
Slide out

18. Challenges
Digital technologies transforming scientific process and interactions
Economic pressure inducing risk of short-term thinking and results
Tight budgets forcing greater efficiencies and pooling of resources
Increasing need for stringent cross-disciplinary and cross-border research approaches
Acknowledging global dimension of science
Changing relation between science and society

19. Strategic Goal 1:
Become the leading open networking tool

20. Become the leading open networking tool
Enhancing collaborative, bottom-up research
Building on COST’s open, inclusive culture to empower researchers all over Europe
Providing evidence-based information to society and policy stakeholders on emerging scientific and societal challenges.

21. Enable COST
COST creates tight and lasting networks among European researchers
If you want to catch big fishes, the nets have to be strong and supported at the right level

22. Robert-Jan Smits
Director General for Research, Science and Innovation, European Commission