STSM Grants

Eligibility criteria:

• STSM applicants are engaged in an official research program as a PhD Student or postdoctoral fellow or can be employed by, or affiliated to, an institution, organization, or legal entity which has within its remit a clear association with performing research.

• The priority is given to young researchers (up to 40 years old) and to the applications for mobilities from/to 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. (see Country and Organisation Table)

• The visit location takes place in a country different from the candidate’s country of residence and different from the country of the candidate’s primary affiliation.

• The topic of the candidate’s research is relevant to CERCIRAS.

• The visit duration is minimum 5 calendar days that includes travel

• STSM is carried out in its entirety within a single Grant Period and within the Action’s lifetime

Expenses covered:

• Travel expenses from home to visiting location and back (bus, coach, train 2nd class, and plane economy).

• Visa fees for the visiting country including expenses to obtain the visa.

• Caution: costs related to personal security, health, taxation, social security, and pension matters are not covered
Accommodation and food;

• Regardless of actual travel dates, subsistence lump sums (accommodation, meals) are limited to the number of visiting days plus two travel days, and at most one meal is eligible on each travel day.

• The maximum amount of an STSM Grant is 4000 EUR.

• The candidate can request a pre-payment of 50% of their STSM Grant when they complete the first day of their STSM. The remaining 50% of the Grant is payable once the administrative requirements have been satisfied after the STSM.

Application Procedure:

  1. Fill in the STSM grants application form in the e-cost system (https://e-services.cost.eu/) on page https://e-services.cost.eu/stsm. Consult the USER GUIDE as needed.
  2. Save your application, but do not yet submit.
  3. Send the saved application accompanied with the full documentation in one pdf file to the CERCIRAS STSM Grants Committee (cerciras.grants@pmf.uns.ac.rs)
  4. The CERCIRAS STSM Grants Committee verifies your application. If your application is complete and formally meets all COST requirements, we invite you to submit your application in the e-cost system. We further initiate the voting procedure of the Core Group (CG) that formally decides about your application on behalf of the Management Committee (MC).
  5. Upon approval of the Core Group, the Action Chair pre-approves your STSM grant in the e-cost system, and you receive a formal notification.

Mandatory Acknowledgements:

STSM grant holders must properly acknowledge their financial support in a scientific report and any additional research documentation, which is a direct result of the STSM visit.

After the STSM

  • At most 30 calendar days after the last day of STSM visit, STSM grant holders must upload a scientific report (2 pages) to the e-cost system.
  • This scientific report must be aligned with the template provided in the e-cost system.
  • This e-cost report must be sent to the CERCIRAS STSM Grants Committee.

Failure to produce the above documentation in time may result in the cancellation of the candidate’s STSM grant!

More information is provided in the Annotated Rules and STSM Guide