For conferences held between 15th of June 2024 – 15th of September 2024
* COST Inclusiveness Target Countries (ITC): Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, The Republic of Moldova, Montenegro, The Republic of North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, Ukraine.
Important Dates
Note this is an open call. You can apply any time up to the closing date.
Conference dates: 15th of June 2024 to 15th of September 2024. The report and claim must be
submitted by the end of September 2024 at the latest.
Call closes: 10th of June 2024
Applications may be submitted anytime during the open call, they will be reviewed shortly after the
deadline.
Are you a Young Researcher (under 40 years old)? Do you want attend an international conference to present you work?
CLEANFOREST is offering up to four ITC Conference Grants (of up to €1,000 each) for young researchers and innovators to attend a high-level conference and present their work as an oral presentation or a poster.
Eligibility Rules
In order to apply for an ITC Conference Grant, the following criteria must be fulfilled. The applicant
must:
- Be actively involved in CLEANFOREST Working Group activities.
- Be affiliated to a legal entity in a COST Inclusiveness Target Country (ITC) or Near Neighbour Country (NNC).
- The applicant must be engaged in an official research programme as a PhD Student or postdoctoral fellow or can be employed by, or affiliated to, an institution, organisation or legal entity which has within its commission a clear association with performing research.
- Be a young researcher or innovator (i.e., under the age of 40 following the Cost Action Definition) at the time of the conference.
The Application must be submitted before the deadline of an ITC Conference Grant call.
Financial Rules
- The maximum grant is €1,000 for a face-to-face meeting and €500 for virtual meetings.
- The ITC Conference grant can be used to reimburse costs for travelling, accommodation and subsistence expenses, registration fee and other relevant costs such as printing of scientific poster. Payment for the above costs have to be made using a private bank account, NOT an institutional bank account, to be eligible for reimbursement.
- Due to the uncertainty of travel during the COVID pandemic, “virtual” ITC Conference Grants will also be considered (with funding up to €500).
- Grants are paid by the Grant Holder after the end of Conference and approval of all required report/documentation
Evaluation and awarding of ITC Conference Grants
- The evaluation of ITC Conference Grant applications and selection of ITC Grantees is performed by the Action’s Grant Awarding Coordinator and CLEANFOREST’s ITC Conference Grant Evaluation Committee, on behalf of the Management Committee (MC) of the CLEANFOREST COST Action.
- The selection of applicants is based on the scientific relevance of the ITC Conference Grant application, which must clearly fit in the Action’s scientific objectives.
- The selection also takes into account the COST policies on promoting gender balance, enabling young researchers (under 40 years old) and broadening geographical inclusiveness.
- A minimum threshold of 64 points (i.e. 80% of the maximum) is required for funding. In the situation of applications having the same score, the youngest applicant will be prioritized.
- Applicants may be asked to provide additional information.
The Action will only reimburse ITC Conference grants that are clearly relevant to the CLEANFOREST
Action.
ITC Conference Grant Application Procedure and Obligatory Documents
- Applicants need to have an e-COST profile here.
- The applications must be submitted online here by selecting “Apply for Grant” and then “ITC Conference grant“
- In addition to the information requested by the online platform, the applicants have to upload the following documents in a single PDF file:
- The ITC conference grant Application, based on the e-COST template.
- A cover letter with the abstract of the presentation (or a copy of the presentation if already available), and addressing the points in evaluation criteria not covered by the form.
- A short CV (maximum 2 pages) including the age of the applicant (for the internal use only by
the evaluation committee, not publicly available), and recent publications, if applicable. - The budget requested (in €) including the list and justification of estimated costs.
Important Notes
- Acknowledgment of the COST Action in the presentation is required (the acknowledgement slide need to be uploaded with the final report to the e-COST). Failure to do so will result in the claim for reimbursement not being accepted.
- ITC CG grantees are expected to share the outcomes of their conference contributions within the COST Action community. Therefore, a photograph and a short description of the contribution will be requested by the grantees to be uploaded on the website of the Action.
Additional information on the submission via the e-COST system can be found here.
Questions/Inquiries:
Please contact:
- Jaroslav Durkovic (jaroslav.durkovic@tuzvo.sk)
- Yann Salmon (yann.salmon@helsinki.fi)