ITC Conference Grants

COST Action CERCIRAS (CA19135)

Rules and Guidelines for ITC Conference Grants

Eligibility criteria:

  • You are a PhD student or a Young Researcher (up to 40 years old).
  • Your primary affiliation is in a COST inclusiveness target country, currently Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey.
  • You have a paper or poster accepted for presentation at an international conference.
  • The conference takes place in a country different from your country of residence and different from the country of your primary affiliation.
  • The topic of your paper or poster and the conference theme are relevant to CERCIRAS.
  • Conferences in Europe are preferred, but conferences outside of Europe may be considered as well.

Expenses covered:

  • travel expenses from home to conference location and back (bus, coach, train 2nd class, plane economy);
  • visa fees for conference country;
  • conference fee up to 500 EUR;
  • accommodation and subsistence 120 EUR per night including breakfast and 20 EUR per lunch and dinner during conference days and at most two additional travel days as long as not included in the conference fee.

Expense cap:

  • The maximum amount of a Conference Grant is 1500 EUR.
  • In well justified cases the MC can decide to deviate from the above cap and award a conference grant up to the limit of 2500 EUR imposed by the COST rules.

Deadlines:

  • Grant applications can be submitted any time.
  • Grant applications must be submitted at least 45 DAYS BEFORE the conference, as far as possible.
  • The entire conference trip must fit into one CERCIRAS grant period and all administration must be completed in said grant period.

Application Procedure:

  1. Complete the conference grants application form in the e-cost system
    (https://e-services.cost.eu/). Consult the USER GUIDE as needed.
  2. Send the following documentation in one pdf file to the CERCIRAS Conference Grants Committee:

    a) complete print or screenshot of your e-cost application;
    b) title of your paper or poster;
    c) proof of acceptance of your paper or poster (as provided to the e-cost system);
    d) break-down of your (expected) travel expenses;
    e) prints or screen shots of travel booking websites substantiating each expense;
    f) prints or screen shots of the conference website confirming the effective participation fee;
    g) list of lunches and dinners included in the conference fee;
    h) your short CV (as provided to the e-cost system);
    i) a brief description of your involvement in the COST Action (as provided to the e-cost system);
  3. The CERCIRAS Conference Grants Committee verifies your application. If your application is complete and formally meets all COST requirements, we initiate the voting procedure of the Core Group (CG) that formally decides about your application on behalf of the Management Committee (MC). 
  4. Upon approval of the Core Group, the Action Chair pre-approves your conference grant in the e-cost system and you receive a formal notification.

Mandatory Acknowledgements:

  • Conference grant holders must properly acknowledge their financial support in their published paper/poster as well as on the respective presentation slides.

After the conference:

  • At most 30 calendar days after the last conference day attended, but no later than one week before the end of the grant period, conference grant holders must upload a scientific report (2 pages) to the e-cost system.
  • This report must be aligned with the template provided in the e-cost system.
  • This e-cost report together with the paper, presentation slides and/or poster must be sent to the CERCIRAS Conference Grants Committee.

Failure to produce the above documentation in time may result in the cancellation of your conference grant!

Always get in touch with the CERCIRAS Conference Grants Committee as early as possible. We’re there to help you with your application throughout the process.

For more details about Granting Rules, please consult Grant Awarding Guide and Annotated Rules for COST Actions.