ITC Conference grants

What are ITC Conference Grants?

ITC Conference Grants provide support to Young Researchers & Innovators (< 40 years old) from COST Inclusive Target Countries (ITC) and Near Neighbour Countries (NNC) for their participation (talk/poster) in a high level conference not specifically organised by the COST Action.

Who can apply
  • ITC grants can only be awarded to Action’s members that fall under the category of “Young researcher & innovator” (< 40 years old) and are affiliated to an institution located in an ITC or NNC.

List of Inclusive Target Countries (ITC):

List of Near Neighbour Countries (NNC): Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Egypt, Georgia, Jordan, Kosovo, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Russia*, Syria, Tunisia and Ukraine.

(*) Announcement from COST Association on the 14/02/2022:
Action participants affiliated to Russian institutions are ineligible to receive financial support under the rules of Horizon Europe Framework Programme. As a result, COST must also declare these participants ineligible to receive financial support.
Further, COST activities (e.g. STSM grantees going to a lab in Russia, ITCCG grantees participating in a conference in Russia, etc) taking place in Russia are also considered ineligible.

  • Applicants must make an oral/poster presentation at the conference in question and be listed in the official event/conference programme.
  • The main subject of the presentation must be on a topic relevant to COST Action.
  • COST Action TUMIEE should be acknowledged both in the book of abstracts and in the oral/poster presentation following COST guidelines. Examples of acknowledgements can be:

The author(s) acknowledge(s) COST (European Cooperation on Science and Technology) for funding the Action CA17126 “Toward Understanding and Modelling Intense Electronic Excitation (TUMIEE)” supporting this work.

This work benefited from networking activities carried out within the EU funded COST Action TUMIEE (CA17126) and represents a contribution to it.

Financial support

The scope of an ITC Conference Grant is providing contribution for travelling, accommodation and subsistence expenses, registration fee, printing of scientific poster and overall effort. Conference Grants do not necessarily cover all of the expenses related to participating in a given conference. The awarded grant takes into consideration the budget request of the applicant and the outcome of the evaluation of the application by ITC Coordinator and it must respect the following maximum amounts:

  • Up to EUR 2000 per grant for face-to-face conferences.
  • Up to EUR 500 per grant for virtual conferences.

NB: Applicants should make a budget request taking in to consideration the duration and location of the conference. For reference, it is advised to consult the Daily Allowance table based on country that COST has established for meetings: www.cost.eu/daily_allowance and estimate a real and sensible amount for the travel expenses.

How to apply
  1. Log into e-COST and click on the ITC Conference Grants tab.

Please note that the tab ‘ITC Conference Grants’ might not be available in the following cases:

  • If the applicant’s e-COST profile is incomplete, they will first have to fill in the missing information (affiliation, education details, CV)
  • If the primary affiliation of the applicant is not in an ITC or in a NNC
  • If the applicant is 40 or older.
  1. Follow the steps in e-COST for ITC Conference Grant application. Information to be provided in the application:

To be filled in e-COST:

  • Title of the presentation
  • Conference title, date (within the active Grant Period) and country
  • Budget requested
  • Attendance Type (face to face or virtual)

To be uploaded to e-COST:

  • Application form describing: Relevance of the conference topic to the Action and Motivation describing the potential for impact on the applicant’s career
  • Copy of the abstract of the accepted oral or poster presentation
  • Acceptance letter from the conference organisers
Deadline for applications

This is a continuously open call. However, the conference must be held before the end of the current Grant Period (11/09/2022). Ideally, the application should be submitted at least 45 days before the conference start date.

Assessment and approval of the applications

The selection of applicants is responsibility of the ITC Coordinator and is based on the following criteria:

  • Scientific merit of the proposal based on the abstract submitted, also considering the scientific scope of the proposed participation and how it will support the Action in achieving its scientific objectives.
  • Presentation of research activities developed in the frame of a collaborative project within two different COST Member Countries will be preferred.
  • Applicants priory awarded with a Grant will have a lower priority.
  • Geographical, gender and degree balance will be taken into consideration.

Once an application is approved, the Grant Awarding coordinator will review the budget requested and will determine the Grant amount in accordance with the applicant’s request but also taking into consideration the duration and location of the conference and the budget available (if the amount requested by the applicant is considered to be excessive or not well justified, the GA coordinator can approve a lower grant amount).

The Grant Holder will send a grant letter to every successful applicant.

During the conference

Please, take some pictures and send them to ca17126@industriales.upm.es.

Grantees are encouraged to tweet from their own Twitter account during the conference, mentioning @ca17125, @COSTprogramme and any other relevant hashtag.

After the conference: documents required and payment of the grant

The grantee must submit the following documents through e-COST within 30 calendar days from the end date of the conference or 15 days after the end of the Grant Period (whichever date comes first) to claim the payment of the grant:

  • A report on the outcome of the presentation of the accepted contribution, in terms of grantee’s visibility, including the establishment of new contacts for future collaborations.
  • The certificate of attendance.
  • The programme of the conference or book of abstracts / proceedings indicating the presentation (oral or poster) of the grantee.
  • Copy of the given presentation (oral or poster).

Grants are paid by the Grant Holder after the completion of the activity and approval of the required documentation.

Info related to COVID-19 pandemic

In the case of on site conferences where participants need to travel, ITC Conference grants’ applicants must check regularly the applicable travel rules of their home and host countries to make sure they can travel and the conference is indeed taking place as planned. Considering the current uncertainty, grantees are requested to take as many measures as possible to guarantee the reimbursement of their travel expenses in case a conference must be cancelled or changed to a virtual modality due to the pandemic evolution (accommodation booking with free cancellation, travel/cancellation insurance…).

Contact persons

Grant Awarding Coordinator: Dr Eduardo Oliva (eduardo.oliva@upm.es)

Grant Holder Manager: Ms Ana Benítez (ca17126@industriales.upm.es)