Deadline for application: 29 October 2021
Conference Grants (up to 1500 Euro) are aimed at supporting PhD students and postdocs Early Career Investigators (ECI) researchers from Participating Inclusiveness Target Countries (ITC*) to attend international science and technology related conferences not specifically organized by the COST Action. The applicant must present an abstract at the congress (poster or oral). The congress must be held by the end of October 2021.
* ITC (Inclusiveness Target Countries): Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Croatia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Republic of North Macedonia, Republic of Serbia and Turkey.
Eligibility criteria
- The Applicant must be a PhD student or a postdoctoral fellow who has received PhD/doctorate title within 8 years (Early Career Investigator, ECI).
- The Applicant’s primary affiliation in an institution located in an ITC (Inclusiveness Target Country). The ITCs are as follows: Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Croatia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Republic of North Macedonia, Republic of Serbia and Turkey.
- The Applicant must make an oral/poster presentation at the conference in question and must be listed in the official event/conference program. The main subject of the oral presentation / poster presentation / speech at the approved conference must be on the topic of the Action CONNECT and must acknowledge COST (Before filling the application, please consult the ITC Conference Grant rules in the userguide).
- Conferences with dates in November 2021 and later are not eligible
The participation of each Applicant will be pre-approved by the MC of the COST Action CONNECT. Attendance at European conferences is preferred. However, conferences held elsewhere can also be considered.
Financial details
The ITC grant covers up to 500E for Conference fees and up to 1000E for living/travel expenses (maximum 160E per day regarding the living expenses).
How to apply?
To apply for a Conference Grant within the CONNECT Cost Action (CA19127):
- submit an ITC grant application using e-COST https://e-services.cost.eu/ . If you do not already have an e-COST account you will first need to ‘create an account’ – which will include providing the details of the bank account where the grant will be lodged if your ITC grant application is approved and the ITC successfully completed.
The ITC application requires the following documents: CV, description of involvement in the CONNECT COST action, acceptance letter of the abstract, copy of the abstract
- Download the pdf of the completed ITC grant application from e-cost. Send this pdf to ITC Conference Grants Manager Ana Carina Ferreira (a.carina.costa.ferreira@gmail.com) before the deadline
Application process
The ITC Conference Grants Manager pre-evaluates all submitted applications in the context of their compatibility and relevance with the topic of the Action. The Grants Manager also checks if the applicant is a PhD candidate or ECI, and if he/she represents an ITC country.
The result of the pre-approval is the ranking list and the actual number of applications to be funded is determined by the available budget. The ITC Conference Grants Manager confirms available funding with the Grant Manager, and informs successful Applicants about the result of the pre-approval.
The Applicants that were successful during the pre-approval must then formally submit their applications via e-COST.
Action Chair approves the applications that have been successfully pre-approved.
The Grant Holder sends the grant letter.
Before filling the application, please consult the ITC Conference Grant rules in the COST Vademecum at Section 9 (page 37). With any further questions please contact ITC Conference Grants Manager Ana Carina Ferreira (a.carina.costa.ferreira@gmail.com).
