Short Term Scientific Missions

With Short Term Scientific Missions (STSMs) early career investigators are given the opportunity to spend five days to three months abroad, in one of the participating countries. For guidelines, terms and conditions, please see below. Please note that STSMs should preferably be completed by the end of the current Grant (budget) year, which was recently postponed by the COST office to April 30, 2016. There is extra budget available for missions which are completed in the current Grant year and these will be given priority.

Aim and Criteria for Short Term Scientific Missions (STSMs)

1. STSMs are primarily designed to support early-stage researchers (ESRs). ESRs are researchers who obtained their PhD degree no longer than eight years prior to joining the COST project. Senior researchers can also apply for STSM funding, but priority is given to early-stage researchers and researchers with a temporary position.
2. STSMs should stimulate cooperation within the COST network. They should also lead to the researcher obtaining expertise that is not available from his/her home institution. For example, we can imagine a situation in which an early-stage researcher obtains expertise from a senior researcher at a host institution in order to complete a research paper or project. All missions that aim at collaboration and obtaining expertise are eligible for funding.
3. A scientific mission may also involve the investigation of source material in libraries or archives. If this is the case, it is recommended that the applicant include some degree of cooperation with the host institution in his/her original work plan (i.e. the description of projected research as part of the application for the STSM). For example, we can imagine a situation in which the investigation of source material furthers cooperation through the classification and identification of material, which, in turn, improves the cataloguing system at the host institution.
4. A STSM can be awarded in connection with participation in a COST Training School.
5. During an STSM, neither the Management Committee (MC), the COST Office (CO) nor the Grant Holder (the University of Groningen) may be considered as an employer.

The deadlines for applications are 1st June and 1st December of each year. The coordinators will publish the calls regularly.

Awarded STSMs:

STSM funding (deadline 1 December 2014) has been awarded to Dr Marleen Cré, University of Lausanne, Lausanne (CH), Dr Adam Poznański, Institute of Classical, Mediterranean and Oriental Studies, Wroclaw (PL) and Alisa van de Haar, MA, University of Groningen, Groningen (NL).

STSM funding (deadline 1 June 2015) has been awarded to Dr Borbála Lovas, MTA-TKI, MTA-ELTE Humanism in East Central Europe Research Group, Budapest (HU); (deadline 15 August 2015) to Dr Martin Dekarli, Hussite Theological Faculty, Charles University, Prague (CZ) and Gábor Förköli, Hungarian Academy of Sciences - University ELTE, Budapest (HU).