ITC Conference Grants

The Applicant is a Young Researcher or Innovator (under the age of 40) affiliated with an Inclusiveness Target Country (ITC) or Near Neighbour Country (NNC).

COST Inclusiveness Target Countries:  Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Croatia, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Republic of North Macedonia, Republic of Serbia, Türkiye and Ukraine.

COST Near Neighbour Countries: Algeria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Egypt, Jordan, Kosovo, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Russia*, Syria, and Tunisia.

The applicant must directly contribute to the conference through an oral or poster presentation, on-site or virtually, and must be listed in the official event/conference program. The main subject of the presentation must be aligned with the scientific objectives of the COZYME Action, e.g. related to a specific Working Group. The work presented during the conference must mention explicitly and acknowledge the support of the COST Action CA21162 COZYME according to the COST guidelines on visual identity.

The attendance at the conference and the application process must start and end during the same Grant Period. Applicants preferably did not previously receive an ITC grant.

The ITC Conference Grant is used to contribute to the mission’s costs, for travel, accommodation and subsistence expenses, registration fee, the printing of scientific posters and overall effort for implementation and reporting. It may not cover all the costs associated with the mission. Travel and subsistence costs are concerned only for face-to-face activities.

The financial contribution for each ITC Conference Grant takes into account the actual conference fee, the duration and the location of the Conference. The total sum for a face-to-face conference shall not exceed EUR 2000.

Please note that the awarded grant will be paid only after attending the Conference – therefore, you must have approval and prior financial support, e.g., from your own institution. The reimbursement can be paid to a private or an institutional account, should the institution give prior financial support.

Starting from 01/11/2023, all the applications should be completed and uploaded via the dedicated COST online tool at https://e-services.cost.eu/activity/grants

An application containing the following documents should be submitted through the e-COST system:

• The COST ITC Conference Grant application form, available at https://e-services.cost.eu/activity/grants after registration in the e-COST system at https://e-services.cost.eu/; In the application please include to which WG(s) presented work focuses on;
• The title of the presentation;
• The Conference title, date (within the active Grant Period) and country;
• The budget requested;
• The acceptance letter from the conference organizers for the work to be presented;
• A copy of the abstract of the accepted oral or poster presentation;
• The CV (including the date of birth) of the applicant has to be uploaded directly to the e-COST profile of the applicant;
• Support letter of the PhD supervisor and for Master’s student an approved research programme enrolement form signed by the University.
  

In the application, the applicant shall describe the relevance of the conference topic to the Action and the motivation describing the potential for impact on the applicant’s career.

If approved, ITC Grant Awarding Coordinator will notify the Grant Holder manager, who will send the Grant Letter to the applicant;
After the Conference, the investigator submits a scientific report at e-COST within 14 days after the end date of the activity. The required report/documentation for claiming the ITC Conference Grant is:

• Report to the Action Chair on the outcome of the presentation of the accepted contribution.
• The certificate of attendance.
• The programme of the conference (or book of abstracts/proceedings) indicating the presentation of the grantee (with applicant’s name and title of the presentation).
• Copy of the given presentation/poster.
• The ITC Grant Awarding Coordinator will approve the final report. The Grant Holder manager executes payment to the ITC Applicant.