ITC Conference Grants

ITC Grants Call: conference must complete by 8 September 2023.

Proposals from those who have attended a MW-Gaia Workshop or School are especially welcome.

ITC Grants Overview

Inclusiveness Target Country (ITC) Conference Grants support PhD students and Early Career researchers from participating ITCs to attend international conferences in the thematic domain of the Action.

The applicant must be engaged in an official research programme as a PhD researcher at an institution located in a COST Inclusiveness Target Country.

ITC Conference Grants need to contribute to the scientific objectives of the COST Action. ITC Conference Grants are exclusively reserved for PhD students, PhD candidates, and Early-Career Investigators (ECIs, less than 8 years from the PhD degree) with a primary affiliation in an institution located in an ITC participating in the Action. The applicant is required to make an oral/poster presentation at the conference in question and be listed in the official event/conference programme.

ITC Conference grant applications can be submitted continuously, although they will only be assessed at fixed collection at the end of each calendar month. Within each grant period, the ITC Conference attended needs to be completed by 8 September 2023.

Please contact the ITC coordinator Ivanka Stateva, if you have questions (see contact us).

ITC Conference Grants: Rules and Procedures

Any MW-Gaia member who is a PhD student or an Early Career Investigator (or ECI, defined by COST as an individual who is 8 years post-PhD), is an active Working Group member, and is affiliated with an institution located in an ITC country participating in the Action can submit a request for an ITC Conference Grant.

Applications can be submitted at any time, but are only reviewed at the end of each calendar month. Applicants are advised to submit their application in good time. In exceptional circumstance applications submitted at least 30 calendar days before the conference start date will be considered.

The applicant is expected to make an oral/poster presentation at the conference in question and must be listed in the official event / conference programme. The main subject of the oral presentation / poster presentation / speech at the approved conference must be on the topic of the MW-Gaia Action and must acknowledge COST funding.

Grant applications must be approved by the ITC Conference Manager.

The following funding conditions apply and must be respected:

  • up to a maximum of EUR 2000 in total can be afforded to each successful ITC applicant attending a face-to-face conference OR EUR 500 for virtual conferences.
  • the ITC application must be supported by an MW-Gaia Working Group chair (a short supporting email message is sufficient), and there should be clear benefits to the functioning of the Working Group.
An ITC Conference Grant is a fixed financial contribution which takes into consideration the budget request of the applicant and the outcome of the evaluation of the application by the delegated person(s). ITC Conference Grants do not necessarily cover all of the expenses related to participating in a given conference. An ITC Conference Grant is a contribution to the overall travel, accommodation and meal expenses of the selected Grantee.

Note that ITC Conference Grants will cover registration costs of meetings, relevant for those attending virtual meetings.

Finally: the application procedure is more straightforward than it might at first seem. Do remember to contact a Working Group lead to get their support. We look forward to receiving your applications!

Eligibility

Please check your eligibility in Section 1.2.1 of the Annotated Rules for COST Actions at https://www.cost.eu/uploads/2021/10/COST-094-21-Annotated-Rules-for-COST-Actions-Level-C-2021-11-01-1.pdf

Application Procedure

  1. Applicants must read the process description in section 2.3 of the Annotated COST Rules.
  2. Applicants must log in to (or if their first time, create an) e-COST profile at https://e-services.cost.eu/
  3. After registration, applicants can initiate the application by pressing the 'Apply for grant' and selecting the ITC Con Terence grant option.
  4. The following information needs to be provided: Applicant details, Conference Grant details, Bank details, Financial support, supporting documents (see below)
  5. Once submitted the application is made available to MW-Gaia ITC Grant Panel for evaluation.
The list of supporting documents to be submitted in pdf format for the evaluation are:
  1. The submitted ITC application form (downloadable when the online application is submitted – see point 4 above);
  2. A short description of involvement in the COST Action, including Working Group membership, and a quoted statement of support from a Working Group lead (a copy of text sent via email is acceptable);
  3. Acceptance letter from the conference organisers (If applicable: confirming either your speaking slot or your poster presentation);
  4. A copy of the abstract or poster submitted to the conference;
  5. A CV (including a list of academic publications – if applicable).

Evaluation Criteria

Applications will be assessed against the objectives of MW-Gaia.

  1. Scientific quality (e.g., proposed outcome), with a normalized weight of 0.5.
  2. Matching the objectives and deliverables of the Action (e.g., inclusiveness), with a weight of 0.5.
The following scores will be given for each of the 2 criteria above:
1 – Not competitive, 2 – Good, 3 – Excellent, 4 - Outstanding

The final score will be the weighted sum of the 2 individual scores. A funding threshold will be set by the ITC Conference Grant panel. The evaluation panel makes its decision within two weeks after the end of month proposal collection.

Reporting Rules and Reimbursement

One day and 15 days after the end of the participation in the conference, the grantee receives a reminder to upload the scientific report.

The deadline to submit the last supporting document is 30 days from the end of the participation in the conference. The submission of the report is mandatory, failure to comply will result in cancellation of the Grant. Late submission, beyond the deadline, can also lead to the cancellation of the Grant.

A scientific report template is available on-line.

The grantee must complete this template and save it in pdf before uploading it on e-COST.

Financial Rules

See Annex 2 section 3 of the COST rules (linked below).

For all the other rules, regulations, and procedures, applicants should refer to the COST Rules:
https://www.cost.eu/uploads/2021/10/COST-094-21-Annotated-Rules-for-COST-Actions-Level-C-2021-11-01-1.pdf

For information on COST and Covid-19 - see https://www.cost.eu/who-we-are/about-cost/coronavirus-covid-19/covid-19-actions/.

Because of the ongoing issues concerning travel restrictions, that can change at short notice, cancellation insurance is recommended (this is an eligible expense).


Page last updated: NAW: 20230609

Next Deadline

The ITC Conference Grant Call is an OPEN call. Proposals will be reviewed in the first week of every month based on proposals received by the last day of each month.

Key Dates

  • Deadline for submissions: Last day of every month.
  • Feedback to Applicants: by the middle of the next month.
  • The conference/ workshop must have completed by 31 August 2023

ITC Grant Panel

  • ITC Panel Chair: Ivanka Stateva (Institute of Astronomy, Sofia)
  • Joseph Caruna (University of Malta)
  • Corinne Charbonnel (University of Geneva)
  • Lovro Palaversa (Ruđer Bošković Institute, Zagreb)
  • Ozgecan Onal Tas (Istanbul University)


  • COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is a funding agency for research and innovation networks. Our Actions help connect research initiatives across Europe and enable scientists to grow their ideas by sharing them with their peers. This boosts their research, career and innovation.
  • Funded by the European Union

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