As we wrap up our 2025 activities, this is the time to look back and see all this year’s achievements, filled with networking, events, training, and new opportunities for the COST Action community.
Our 316 running COST Actions created 575,065 connections between Action participants. Increases in the use of COST Action networking tools were seen in training schools, and in the use of the Conference Grants for Young Researchers and Innovators.
Seventy new COST Actions were approved by COST’s Committee of Senior Officials (CSO) in May and kicked off between September and November. These new research networks explore many innovative and interesting topics from Natural sciences, Medical and Health Sciences, Engineering and Technology, Social Sciences, and Agricultural Sciences. Subfields that are particularly strongly represented in this call are Mathematics, Chemical Engineering, Clinical Medicine and the Arts.
Seven COST Innovators Grants were also awarded to concluding COST Actions that demonstrated strong innovation potential. Our Open Call for new COST Actions (oc-2025-1) attracted record submissions with 29% increase compared to oc-2024-1. Additionally, the latest COST Association Customer Satisfaction Survey shows continued high trust in COST from the research community. Lastly, Professor Åse Gornitzka took office as the President of the COST Association
On the COST Programme initiatives and partnerships, COST organised the mid-term conference of the Cross-Cutting Activity (CCA) on career development for young researchers, dedicated to improving career conditions to attract and retain the best researchers in Europe. EIT and COST joined forces to further strengthen innovation in Europe. The Science for Policy workshop, for the first time, enabled US-based researchers and innovators from the National Science Foundation (NSF) AccelNet programme to share insights into the various Science for Policy activities. The first-ever COST Connect with the Joint Research Centre took place in Ispra, Italy and Shaping the Future of Research and Innovation in the Western Balkans to highlight our role in promoting research cooperation in the region.
The COST Academy was also very active in 2025. Through our in-house training programme, we equip the COST community, Chairs, Vice-Chairs, Grant Holder Managers, and Science Communication Coordinators with the skills they need to hit their Action targets. Discover more about COST Academy in our behind-the-scenes video.
Because communication sits at the heart of what we do, we provide dedicated stewardship to all COST Actions and their Science Communication Coordinators to maximise the communication, dissemination, and uptake of their results. We are also very active in animating our social media accounts, with a net audience growth of 15 % over the year (X, LinkedIn, Facebook). In addition to writing stories, producing videos, releasing new publications and studies, a series of science communication best practices was produced, where we put the spotlight on COST Actions doing great things with science communication. Finally, sending our monthly newsletter to promote news and opportunities from the COST Programme and our COST Action networks.
Looking ahead – Open Call 2026: Please note that COST is streamlining its proposal submission, evaluation, selection and approval procedure. We look forward to receiving your proposals, which you will be able to submit in Summer 2026. Check our dedicated page for more information.
Thank you for your energy and support throughout 2025. Together, let’s make next year an even bigger year of networking, learning, and new opportunities for researchers and innovators!
Wishing you peaceful holidays and a happy, successful New Year 2026!