• To support Young Researchers affiliated in an Inclusiveness Target Country (ITC) or Near Neighbour Country (NCC) to establish new contacts for future collaborations.
• To support them to develop a strong network and to increase their visibility in the research community through sharing their work and to gain knowledge.
• To contribute to the increase in the visibility of the COST Action PRIORITY.

• Launch of the 3rd ITC CG call: 15/11/2023
• Opening of the dedicated COST online tool at https://e-services.cost.eu/activity/grants/add : 15/11/2023
• PRIORITY operates through a unique open call, until the availability of fundings.
• The applications received will be promptly evaluated within 3 weeks and financial support will be awarded based on available budget.

The Applicant is a Young Researcher (under the age of 40) affiliated in an Inclusiveness Target Country (ITC) or Near Neighbour Country (NNC). Updated lists can be found under “Country and Organisations Table” at https://www.cost.eu/funding/documents-guidelines/

COST Inclusiveness Target Counties are as follows: Full Members that are EU Member States (Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary*, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia), EU Member States Outermost Regions (French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte, Reunion Island and Saint-Martin/France, Azores and Madeira/Portugal, and the Canary Islands/Spain), Full Members that are not EU Member States (Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine).

* Applications from Hungary are eligible whether the individual applicants are not affiliated as primary affiliation to any Hungarian legal entities implied by the Council Implementation Decision 2022/2056 for the execution of COST Actions and COST activities. For any doubts, please contact Dr. Stefania Federici, Chair of the PRIORITY Action at stefania.federici@unibs.it

COST Near Neighbour Countries: Algeria, Azerbaijan, Egypt, The Faroe Islands, Jordan, Kosovo, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Syria and Tunisia.

• The applicant must directly contribute to the conference through an oral/poster presentation, on-site or virtually, and must be listed in the official event/conference program. The main subject of the presentation at the conference must be on the topic of the Action PRIORITY.
• The work presented during the conference must mention explicitly and acknowledge the support of the COST Action CA20101 PRIORITY according to the COST guidelines on visual identity.The Action can be acknowledged as follows: “This article/publication/contribution is based upon work from COST Action CA20101 Plastics monitoRIng detectiOn RemedIaTion recoverY – PRIORITY, supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). www.cost.eu”. Posters should also include the COST and EU logos as specified in the guidelines on visual identity.
• The attendance at the conference and the application process must start and end during the same Grant Period.
  
  

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 you own institution. The reimbursement can be paid either to a private or to an institutional account, should the institution give prior financial support.

The main subject of the oral/poster presentation at the approved conference must be aligned with the topics of the COST PRIORITY, and must fit within the scope of any of the Working Groups:

• WG1 – Impacts and risks on human health and environment related to N/MPs.
• WG2 – Monitoring and sampling MPs
• WG3 – Instrumentation, modelling, data evaluation, software, and analytical procedures
• WG4 – Nanoplastics
• WG5 – Remediation, recovery and development of sustainable alternative to plastic materials
• WG6 – Metrology and standardization
• WG7 – Develop new strategies to increase the synergies with society and education

The ITC Conference Grant is used to providing a contribution to the costs of the mission, for travelling, accommodation and subsistence expenses, registration fee, printing of scientific poster and overall effort for implementation and reporting. It may therefore not cover all the costs associated to the mission. Travel and subsistence costs are concerned only for face-to-face activities.

The financial contribution for each ITC Conference Grant is taking into account the actual conference fee, the duration and the location of the Conference. It must respect the following criteria:

• Up to 1400 EUR per grant for face-to-face conferences
• Up to 500 EUR for virtual conferences

Starting from 15/11/2023, the applicant should complete and upload via the dedicated COST online tool at https://e-services.cost.eu/activity/grants/add:

• 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/
• The title of the presentation
• The Conference title, date (within the active Grant Period) and country
• The budget requested, with justification
• If available, the acceptance letter from the conference organizers for the work to be presented. If not available, the evaluation of the application can be processed by uploading a screenshot of the conference website indicating the expected date of notification of abstract acceptance. However, the upload of the acceptance letter will be mandatory for the final attribution of the grant.
• A copy of the abstract
• The CV of the applicant has to be uploaded directly to the e-cost profile of the applicant
• ID student card and approval of supervisor in the case of a PhD student
  
  

These documents should be submitted through the e-COST platform.

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.

The evaluation of the applications is performed under the lead and responsibility of the Grant Awarding coordinator, with the assistance of the Chair and the Vice-Chair, and, if necessary, of the Working Group Leaders and the Young Research Representative.

The evaluation criteria consider the scientific scope of the results to be presented, how they fit into the Action PRIORITY and contribute to the achievement of its scientific objectives, as well as how the attendance at the conference will contribute to the professional development of the applicant. Also, geographical balance and gender balance will be considered. We will also aim at achieving a balance of granted ITC Conference Grants among the different Working Groups.

The Grant Holder will inform the successful applicants by e-mail by sending them a Grant letter with an official approval of the ITC Conference Grant application, a “Payment Request” (to be completed after approval of the ITC Conference Grants report) and the level of the financial grant given. The Applicant has to confirm the acceptance of the grant by returning the Grant letter with his/her signature. In case of rejection, the Grant Awarding coordinator will directly inform the applicant by e-mail.

The grantee is required to submit, within 30 days after the end date of the Conference or 15 days after the end of the Grant period, whichever date comes first, a report to the Home Institution, Action Chair, Vice Chair, and Grant Awarding Coordinator for approval. The report should contain:

• A report on the outcome of the presentation 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.
• A copy of the given presentation/poster.
  
  

The Action Chair and Grant Awarding Coordinator are responsible for approving the report. The failure to submit the scientific report in due time will effectively cancel the grant. Once the report is approved and the payment request submitted, the payment of the ITC Conference grant will be carried out by bank-to-bank transfer to the grantee.

Please be aware that the grantee will be asked to present the results disseminated through the ITC Conference Grant during internal meetings or events organized by the Action PRIORITY (eg. Management Committee or Working Group meeting). They can also be used as part of the communication strategy of the Action.

For more information and enquiries, please do not hesitate to contact the Grant Awarding Coordinator:

• Dr. Nicolas Keller, nkeller@unistra.fr
  ICPEES – CNRS – University of Strasbourg, France