What COST does

COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is an intergovernmental funding framework established in 1971 and now operating as the COST Association, an international not-for-profit association under Belgian law headquartered in Brussels. It coordinates and funds bottom-up, interdisciplinary research networks called COST Actions, which run for four years and connect researchers and innovators across Europe and beyond. COST receives its institutional funding from the European Commission under the Horizon Europe (and previously Horizon 2020) Framework Programme and serves 41 member countries plus one cooperating member and one partner member, with active engagement from approximately 60,000 researchers and innovators.

The organization's core product is the annual Open Call, through which research network proposals are submitted, externally evaluated, and selected for funding of up to 80 new Actions per cycle. These Actions are managed via the e-COST online grant management platform and supported by a suite of networking instruments including Short-Term Scientific Missions, Training Schools, Conference Grants, Communication and Dissemination Grants, and Virtual Mobility Grants. Surrounding the core Action programme, COST operates three sub-brands: COST Academy (in-house training), COST Connect (thematic policy workshops), and COST Innovators Grant (follow-on funding for ending Actions). Reported outcomes include a 39% success rate for follow-up EU proposals, an average of €4.5 million in spin-off funding per Action, and 85% of Young Researchers reporting career advancement.

COST's go-to-market is community-led and event-driven: researchers propose and lead networks bottom-up, join running Actions at any point during their four-year lifespan, and engage through Working Groups, Management Committees, Short-Term Scientific Missions, and Training Schools. The COST National Coordinator network provides grassroots in-country outreach across all member countries. Commercial revenue is not generated; the organization's revenue model is government grant funding (EU Framework Programme allocations) redistributed as collaboration grants, with per-Action funding levels of approximately €150,000 in year one and €180,000 annually in years two through four.

Name

COST

Legal name

COST Association

Website

https://cost.eu

Company type

Private

Founded year

1971

Operating status

Operating

Short description

COST is an EU-funded intergovernmental framework that funds and coordinates bottom-up interdisciplinary research networks (COST Actions) across 41 member countries, distributing grants via an annual Open Call managed through its e-COST platform to academic researchers, SMEs, young researchers, and policymakers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Research Funding and Coordination

NAICS

Grantmaking Foundations (813211), Grantmaking and Giving Services (8132), Scientific Research and Development Services (5417)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300)

akta.pro primary industry

Research & Science Grantmaking Foundations (BPAGAKAI)

akta.pro secondary industries

Research Grants, Fellowships & Stipends (International) (EDAIAOAJ), Mobility Grants & Short-Term Study/Travel Awards (EDAIAOAK), Field-of-Study & Discipline-Specific Funding (EDAIAOAD)

Keywords

• Research networking
• Science funding
• Horizon Europe grants
• Interdisciplinary collaboration
• Academic networks

Headquarters

HQ city

Brussels

HQ country

Belgium

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. EU Framework Programme Funding: COST receives EU funding under Research and Innovation Framework Programmes including Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe. This funding is used exclusively to cover collaboration activities such as workshops, conferences, working group meetings, training schools, short-term scientific missions, and dissemination activities.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

COST is a Brussels-headquartered, EU-funded not-for-profit association that funds and coordinates pan-European interdisciplinary research networks known as COST Actions. It supports researchers, scholars, and stakeholders from 41 member countries (and partner countries beyond Europe) by providing financial grants for networking activities such as meetings, conferences, workshops, training schools, and short-term scientific missions. COST enables bottom-up, researcher-driven collaboration across all scientific fields through open calls and an online management platform (e-COST).

Product overview

COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is a funding organization, not a traditional product company. Its core offerings are COST Actions — bottom-up, four-year interdisciplinary research networks funded through an annual Open Call and managed via the e-COST platform. Supporting these are the COST Academy (in-house training), COST Connect (thematic networking workshops), and COST Innovators Grant (follow-on funding for ending Actions). Additional offerings include a multimedia video library, a publications repository, and an events portal. The portfolio is structured around networking instruments — Short-Term Scientific Missions, Training Schools, Conference Grants, and Virtual Mobility Grants — rather than software products.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• COST Innovators Grant: An initiative that aims to build bridges between research and take-up at market, product, service, or societal level, offering ending Actions the possibility to create additional impact during the year after the end of the Action.
• COST Academy
• COST Connect

Quantifiable outcome

• 39% success rate for follow-up proposals from COST Actions (more than triple average EU Framework Programme rates)
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Open Research Europe (ORE)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 September 2022Since September 2022, COST Actions can submit scientific outputs directly to Open Research Europe, the European Commission's Open Access publishing platform. Publishing is free for COST Actions with no deadline restrictions.
• Joint Research Centre (JRC)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCOST has established a partnership with the European Commission's Joint Research Centre. They cooperate on Science4Policy trainings and have extended their MoU for another 5 years (2023). COST Actions can participate in JRC Competence Framework trainings.
• European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCOST collaborates with EFSA on science-informed policy advice. A year of increased collaboration was noted in 2022.
• European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCOST and EIT have signed an MoU to connect the innovation chain and reinforce synergies. They also run joint initiatives like EIT Jumpstarter training for CIG recipients.
• National Science Foundation (NSF)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCOST cooperates with NSF to expand scientific frontiers through international cooperation.
• Near Neighbour Countries correspondentsminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCOST has dedicated correspondents for Near Neighbour Countries (Algeria, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Jordan, Kosovo, Lebanon, Libya, Palestine, Tunisia, Faroe Islands) who support participation and provide guidance.

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• European Science Foundation (ESF): Pan-European, membership-based science organisation supporting research collaboration, networking, and grant administration. ESF is the closest historical and functional analogue to COST, with overlapping focus on research networking across Europe and beyond.
• Science Europe: Association of European public research funding and research performing organisations. Science Europe represents national funders like COST's member-country agencies and is a direct peer as a pan-European research policy and coordination body.
• European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT): EU body driving innovation through Knowledge and Innovation Communities. EIT has signed an MoU with COST (joint Jumpstarter training for COST Innovators Grant recipients), directly aligning it as a peer in EU-funded research-to-innovation programming.
• Alexander von Humboldt Foundation: German-based foundation funding international academic cooperation and researcher mobility. Humboldt Foundation is highly comparable to COST in mission (international research networking, mobility grants, fellowships) and structure (foundation-based, government-funded).

Broad incumbents

• UK Research and Innovation (UKRI): UK's national research funding organisation covering all disciplines. UKRI is a COST member-country counterpart and the UK's primary channel for cross-disciplinary research funding and networking support.
• U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF): U.S. federal agency funding non-medical basic research. NSF is a strategic partner of COST (cooperation agreement on international scientific cooperation) and a structural analogue as a large-scale government research grantmaker.
• Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG): Germany's central research funding organisation, a major national COST member funder. DFG is a comparable research grantmaking body operating at national scale with a similarly broad scientific remit, providing a relevant benchmark for COST's grantmaking processes.
• European Research Council (ERC): EU-funded frontier research grants under Horizon Europe. ERC is a much larger, more prestigious EU R&D funding instrument; it is the most direct comparator for COST as a peer within the same EU funding ecosystem, though ERC funds individual investigators rather than networks.
• Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF): Switzerland's national research funding body, a COST member-country agency. SNSF is a directly comparable national research grantmaking foundation that channels funding to researchers and research networks across all disciplines.
• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA): EU programme funding researcher mobility, training, and career development under Horizon Europe. MSCA overlaps directly with COST's Short-Term Scientific Missions and career development mandate, but operates at significantly larger scale and focuses on individual fellows.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/costprogramme
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/COSTprogramme
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/cost-office
• Instagraminstagram.com/costprogramme

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about COST