Malta's participation in Europe's oldest research cooperation frame-work

Abstract

COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is the longest-running European re- search framework supporting networking and knowledge sharing amongst science and technology communities in Europe. It does not fund research as such but greatly facilitates the networking and the coordination between researchers working on nationally funded research across Europe. The wide range of networking activities supported by COST, such as meetings, workshops, short term scientifi c missions, publications and training schools and easy administration made it even very amenable to re- searchers based in Malta. Since 2011 Malta has participated in a constantly growing number of running COST Actions and this has resulted in better exposure opportunities for them. More importantly, early stage researchers have been given an invaluable opportunity to increase their contacts circles in their fi elds of interest. This has resulted in unique opportunities for participation and networking in research for researchers based in Malta on a European scale.