COST Actions - European Cooperation in Science and Technology

• 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.
• Commencing in July 2007, 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.
• Only researchers with PhD's and/or five year's experience are eligible to apply to receive funding under the New Zealand programme to support their participation in COST Actions. 

Implementation of pilot scheme between COST and New Zealand