ITC Conference Grants provide financial support for Young Researchers and Innovators affiliated in an Inclusiveness Target Country / Near Neighbour Country for their participation in high-level conferences. The grantee receives support for attending and presenting their work (poster/oral presentation) at a conference and can establish new contacts for future collaborations. 

The list of COST ITCs is available here, and the list of COST NNCs is available here.

Eligibility criteria

All applications will be assessed the Grant Awarding Coordinator. Grant applications need to meet the following criteria:

• The applicant must be a Young Researcher and Innovator (i.e. anyone under the age of 40) with a primary affiliation in an institution located in a participating ITC or NNC.
• The applicant must make an oral/poster presentation at the conference.
• The applicant must be listed in the official event/conference programme.
• The application must be sent at least 45 days before the start date of the conference.
• The main subject of the presentation oral / poster presentation at the approved conference must be on the topic of the Action and must acknowledge COST.

For more details regarding the regulations related to ITC conference grants, please refer to the COST Annotated Rules.

Financial support

Financial support provides a contribution for travelling, accommodation and subsistence expenses, registration fee, printing of scientific poster and overall effort.

The ITC Conference Grant is paid in the form of a grant, hence no invoices will be required. The maximum grant amount is 1500 EUR for face-to-face conferences, and 500 EUR for online conferences.

Final report of ITC Conference Grant

After the ITC Conference Grant activity is finished, the grantee is required to submit a short scientific report to the Action MC, no later than 30 days after the end date of the ITC Conference Grant activity, or 15 days after the end of the Grant Period, whichever date comes first.

The template for the ITC Conference Grant report can be downloaded here.

Failure to submit the scientific report within 30 days will effectively cancel the grant. The Action Chair or Grant Awarding Coordinator is responsible for approving the scientific report and informing the Grant Holder that the ITC Conference Grant has been successfully accomplished. After receipt of the approval by email, the Grant Holder will execute the payment of the grant.

Please note that the reimbursement of ITC Conference grantees will be done after the activity is over and the final report is submitted by the ITC Conference grantee. Exceptions to this rule cannot be granted.

The final report will be uploaded to the burden-eu webpage.

How to apply for an ITC conference grant

1. All applicants must carefully read the funding and eligibility rules detailed in the COST Annotated Rules.

2. All applicants must register for an e-COST profile at https://e-services.cost.eu — adding their bank account details and a recent CV to their profile.

3. Applications need to be submitted through e-COST via https://e-services.cost.eu/activity/grants

The following information will need to be filled in:

• Title of the presentation
• Conference title, date (within the active Grant Period , i.e. no overlap across two consecutive Grant Periods) and country
• Budget requested
• Attendance Type (face to face or virtual)

The following documents will need to be uploaded:

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

Detailed instructions on how to submit your application can be found in the Grant Application user guide.

4. The application will be assessed by the Grant Awarding Coordinator (Tina Lesnik: ) and the Action Chair (Brecht Devleesschauwer: ) against the perceived contribution that the proposed visit will make against the scientific objectives outlined in the Action’s Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

5. The applicant will be formally notified of the outcome of their ITC Conference Grant application by the Grant Awarding Coordinator no more than 4 weeks after the application was received.

6. Successful applicants need to complete and submit a ITC Conference Grant report, within 30 days from the end date of the activity, or 15 days after the end of the Grant Period, whichever date comes first.

Please note that COST can request additional information to substantiate the information contained within the documents submitted by ITC Conference Grant applicants.

Grant Awarding Coordinator

Grant Awarding Coordinator

Dr Tina Lesnik
National Institute of Public Health, Slovenia

Documents

ITC Conference Grant application form

ITC Conference Grant report template

Grant Application user guide

COST annotated rules

Grant Reports