The COST Association last week announced the 80 new COST Actions which were successful in the 2025 open call.
The 80 new COST Actions cover topics as wide and varied as psychosis prevention, silent fans, neuromorphic computing, vaccines for overall health benefits, artificial intelligence, conservation of modern art, and parent and child well-being.
61% of the new Actions cover at least two OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) fields of science and technology, while 20% cover at least three fields.
Natural sciences lead the way as the most represented field of science (represented in 50% of the Actions), followed by Social Sciences (40%), Engineering and Technology (33%), Medical and Health Sciences (31%), Agricultural Science (16%) and Humanities (15%).
The success rate for applications in this Open Call (OC-2025-1) is 7%.
The UK has 10 Main Proposers in these networks and many more Secondary Proposers.
Other key statistics on the successful Actions are:
- 29% of the main proposers are Young Researchers and Innovators
- 53% of the main proposers are women
- 70% of the networks feature participants from industry/SMEs
- 38% of main proposers come from an Inclusiveness Target Country ( ITC)
- 71% of the future networks have attracted participants from all over the world
On Friday 12 June 2026 these new COST Actions (OC- 2025-1), including all Memorandums of Understanding, will be available on the COST website, so if you see a network that is of interest then you can apply to join. In the meantime, a booklet covering the actions is able to be downloaded.
The official kick-off, the first Management Committee meeting (MC1), of these networks take place between September and November 2026.
Potential applicants are also reminded that the COST 2026 Open Call opens on 31 July at noon CET and closes 28 October at noon CET with the COST Association advising applicants to ensure familiarity with the changes to the application process since the 2025 Open Call.