For conferences held between 15th of February 2026 – 31st of August 2026
* 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 February 2026 to 31st of August 2026. The report and claim must be submitted by the end of September 2026 at the latest.
Call closes: 1st of June 2026
Applications may be submitted anytime during the open call until the 1st of June 2026. They will be evaluated on the monthly basis (first come first served) depending on the budget availability.
Do you want to attend an international conference to present your work?
CLEANFOREST is offering several ITC Conference Grants (of up to €2,000 each) for researchers and innovators of any age to attend a high-level conference and present their work as an oral presentation. POSTER PRESENTATIONS ARE NOT ACCEPTABLE.
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.
The Application must be submitted before the deadline of an ITC Conference Grant call.
Financial Rules
- The maximum grant is €2,000 for a face-to-face conference and €500 for an online conference. Onsite face-to-face events will be given a priority.
- The ITC Conference grant can be used to reimburse costs for the registration fee, travelling, accommodation and subsistence expenses. Payment for the above costs have 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 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 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 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 “ITC Conference grant”
- In addition to the information requested by the online platform, the applicants have to upload the following documents:
- The ITC conference Grant Application, based on the e-COST template (https://www.cost.eu/ITCConference_GrantApplication)
- A cover letter with the abstract of the accepted oral 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 €) 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 at: https://www.cost.eu/uploads/2021/12/Grant-Awarding-userguide.pdf
Questions/Inquiries:
Please contact:
- Jaroslav Durkovic (jaroslav.durkovic@tuzvo.sk)
- Yann Salmon (yann.salmon@helsinki.fi)