Dissemination Conference Grants

Open call

The call for Dissemination Grants for GP4 is now open.

The application deadline is 1 June 2024. Applicants will be notified by the Committee within one month.

The conference, symposium, or meeting must be attended before 31 August 2024.

 

Aims

COST offers financial support to participate in high-level conferences, symposia, or meetings to present the WATSON Action, its activities, and results, in order to increase the visibility of the Action and to establish new contacts and potential future collaborations with scientists and/or stakeholders.

 

Grant’s characteristics

The maximum amount per grant is 1000 € for face-to-face conferences, symposia, or meetings, and 300 € for virtual ones. The grants provide funding for travel, accommodation and subsistence expenses; registration fee, poster printing, etc.

 

Conditions to apply

 

• • The applicant must give an oral presentation about the WATSON COST Action and must be listed as a speaker in the official conference, symposium, or meeting programme. The oral presentation must promote the current and planned activities of the WATSON COST Action.
  • Any member of WATSON is eligible to apply.
  • Attendance at European conferences, symposia or meetings is preferred. However, conferences held elsewhere will also be considered.

 

Application and evaluation

Applicants are invited to contact the Grant Awarding Coordinator (Tamara Jakovljević, HR) and the Dissemination Grant Manager (Emel Zeray Öztürk, TR) before applying. In this email, they should clearly indicate the intended audience of the conference and the presentation

Applications are to be submitted through the e-COST platform (https://e-services.cost.eu/user/login). The applicants must upload the following documents:

 

1. 1. Filled in Dissemination Conference Grant application form. A template for the application form can be found here: https://www.cost.eu/DisseminationConference_GrantApplication.
   2. The applicant’s CV, including recent publications (max. 2 pages).
   3. An acceptance letter/email or invitation from the conference organisers.
   4. Copy of the abstract of the accepted oral presentation.

All applications will be assessed within one month after the application deadline by the Grant Awarding Coordinator and Committee according to the following criteria:

 

• • Relevance of the conference, symposium, or meeting to the topic of WATSON. Preference will be given to conferences with stakeholders or participants who are so far unaware of the WATSON COST Action.
  • Expected outcome/chance for establishing new contacts and collaborations and to increase the Action visibility.
  • Costs and realism of the budget
  • Adherence to the Capacity Building objectives of WATSON (see MoU).
  • Geographical distribution, career stage, gender balance.

Priority will be given to applicants who are ECG and MC members, and who have not benefitted from Dissemination Grants or other grants of the WATSON COST Action.

 

Before the conference, symposium or meeting

The grantee has to send make him/herself familiar with the WATSON and COST Action identity and submit a copy of the presentation to the chair and vice-chair of the Action. The grantee has the opportunity to request additional dissemination materials at this time as well.

 

During the conference, symposium or meeting

The grantee gives the presentation about the WATSON COST Action or its outcomes and ideally takes a picture of the meeting.

 

After the conference, symposium or meeting

The grantee has to submit the required documentation in e-COST within 30 days after the end date of the meeting or by 1 September 2024 if this is earlier. The following supporting documentation must be uploaded in e-COST:

 

• • Conference, symposium or meeting report according to the template available in e-COST. The report should clearly describe the outcome of the conference presentation, including contacts made and potential for future collaborations.
  • Certificate of attendance.
  • Programme of the conference or book of abstract/proceedings indicating the oral presentation
  • Slides of the oral presentation.

The grantee should also send a picture of the meeting and two lines of text (or a blog) to the Grant Awarding Coordinator and the Dissemination Grant Manager to be posted on the WATSON website or social media channels.

 

Payment of the Grant

The Grant Awarding Coordinator will verify the validity and content of the report and the required documents. The Grant Awarding Committee will review and approve/reject the report on behalf of the MC. If rejected, a justification will be included in the e-notification to the grantee, who can then revise and re-submit the report. Once the report is approved and all supporting documents are submitted the Grant Holder pays the Grant.