For conferences held between 1st of September 2025 – 15th of October 2025
Important Dates
Note this is an open call. You can apply any time up to the closing date.
Conference dates: 1st of September 2025 to 15th of October 2025. The report and claim must be submitted immediately after the end of conference.
Call closes: 20th of September 2025
Applications may be submitted anytime during the open call until the 20th of September 2025. They will be evaluated on the first come first served basis depending on the budget availability.
Are you a Young Researcher or Innovator (under 40 years of age)? Do you want to attend a high-level international conference to present your work?
CLEANFOREST is offering conference grants (up to €2,500 for overseas conferences and up to €2,000 for European conferences, respectively) for young researchers and innovators to attend a high-level conference organized by a third party and present their work as an oral presentation or a poster. Applicants may be affiliated to any COST country but must be members of CLEANFOREST.
Eligibility Rules
In order to apply for a Young Researcher and Innovator Conference Grant, the following criteria must be fulfilled. The applicant must:
- Be under 40 years of age.
- Be actively involved in CLEANFOREST Working Group activities.
- 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.
The Application must be submitted before the deadline of a Young Researcher Conference Grant call.
Financial Rules
- For a face-to-face conference, the maximum grant is €2,500 (overseas event) or €2,000 (European event). For an online conference, the maximum grant is €500. Onsite face-to-face events will be given a priority.
- The Young Researcher and Innovator 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 posters. Payment for the above costs has to be made using a private bank account, NOT an institutional bank account, to be eligible for reimbursement.
- Grants are paid by the Grant Holder after the end of conference and upon approval of all required reports/documentation.
Evaluation and awarding of YRI Conference Grants
- The evaluation of YRI Conference Grant applications and selection of grantees is performed by the Action’s Grant Awarding Coordinator and CLEANFOREST’s 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 YRI 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 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 YRI Conference Grants that are clearly relevant to the CLEANFOREST Action.
Young Researcher and Innovator Conference Grant Application Procedure and Obligatory Documents
- Applicants need to have an e-COST profile at https://e-services.cost.eu/.
- The applications must be submitted online at https://e-services.cost.eu/activity/grants by selecting “Apply for Grant” and then “Young Researcher and Innovator Conference Grant“
- In addition to the information requested by the online platform, the applicants must upload the following documents:
- The YRI Conference Grant Application, based on the e-COST template (https://www.cost.eu/YRICG-application-template)
- A cover letter with the abstract of the accepted oral or poster presentation (or a copy of the presentation if already available).
- Acceptance letter from the conference organisers.
- A short CV (maximum 2 pages) including recent publications, if applicable.
- The budget requested (in €). Detailed list and justification of estimated costs are required, including a copy of transport tickets search, accommodation search).
Important Notes
- Acknowledgment of the COST Action in the presentation is required (the acknowledgement slide or poster 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.
- YRI CG grantees are expected to share the outcomes of their conference contributions within the COST Action community by means of a webinar or posts on the CLEANFOREST website or social media.
Additional information on the submission via the e-COST system can be found at: https://www.cost.eu/uploads/2021/12/Grant-Awarding-userguide.pdf
Questions/Inquiries:
Please contact:
- Jaroslav Ďurkovič (jaroslav.durkovic@tuzvo.sk)
- Yann Salmon (yann.salmon@helsinki.fi)