COST does not fund research itself, but provides support for networking activities carried out within COST Actions. COST Actions are bottom-up science and technology networks open to researchers and stakeholders, with a four-year duration and a minimum participation of five COST Countries.

COST Actions are active through a range of networking tools, such as meetings, workshops, conferences, training schools, short-term scientific missions (STSMs) and dissemination activities. COST Actions are open to researchers fromuniversities, public and private research institutions, as well as to NGOs, industry and SMEs. To learn more about participating in COST Actions, please visit the Participate page.

It also increases the mobility of researchers across Europe and fosters the establishment of scientific excellence in the nine key domains:

• Biomedicine and Molecular Biosciences
• Food and Agriculture
• Forests, their Products and Services
• Materials, Physics and Nanosciences
• Chemistry and Molecular Sciences and Technologies
• Earth System Science and Environmental Management
• Information and Communication Technologies
• Transport and Urban Development
• Individuals, Societies, Cultures and Health

In addition, Trans-Domain Proposals allow for broad, multidisciplinary proposals to strike across the nine scientific domains.