Posted on by Lea Mlekus

Virtual mobility grants

Virtual Mobility (VM) Grants are grants awarded to individual WG members for supporting activities aiming at capacity building and transfer of knowledge through bilateral/multilateral collaborations in a virtual setting.

Full details on VM Grants are available in the COST Annotated Rules. Here we summarize the most important points.

Scope of the VM Grants

The activities expected to be performed by the successful applicant, but not limited to, are:

  • Virtual mentoring schemes, with special focus on activities and exchanges that can generate capacity building and new skills, particularly for Young Researchers and Investigators (e.g. managerial skills, methodological skills, communication skills, etc).
  • To support the implementation of research related activities that do not necessarily require in-person presence, e.g.
    • computational or modelling activities.
    • data analysis of the Action for a specific report or activity.
    • write-up of joint research articles.
  • To support the harmonisation and standardisation of methods and procedures within the Action networking activities, e.g.
    • setting up a survey amongst all Action members to collect different results and outcomes from experiments done in their respective labs and research groups.
    • coordinating the discussions to create common protocols to be used by the network afterwards.
    • preparing questionnaires and response scales to be used by the Action members as part of virtual networking activities.
  • Content preparation and coordination of science communication activities, e.g.
    • Massive Online Open Courses (MOOC).
    • Online workshops like ‘webinar series’ or ‘tv series’-like format.
    • Online COST Action workshops in external international conferences or events, when the applicant can demonstrate a role in the organising committee, that could help in the promotion of the Action activities.

VM Grants should contribute to the scientific objectives of our COST Action, and respect COST policies with particular attention on inclusiveness and excellence. The main aim and objective of the Action is to integrate and strengthen capacity in burden of disease assessment across Europe and beyond. Please refer to the Action aims and objectives for further details.

Eligibility criteria

All WG members from COST Full and Cooperating Countries and Near Neighbour Countries are eligible to apply for the grants.

Financial support

COST foresees up to 1500 EUR per VM Grant. Since the financial support comes as a grant, no invoices or other justification of the expenses will be requested.

The VM Grants cannot be used to attend virtual conferences or to purchase software license or set up a database.

The Grant Holder shall pay the approved grant to the grantee after the MC has approved the grantee’s report and no later than 15 days from the end of Grant Period.

Final report of VM Grant

After the VM Grant activity is finished, the grantee is required to submit a short scientific report to the Action MC, no later than 30 days after the end date of the VM Grant activity, or 15 days after the end of the Grant Period, whichever date comes first.

Failure to submit the scientific report within 30 days will effectively cancel the grant. The Action Chair or Grant Awarding Coordinator is responsible for approving the scientific report and informing the Grant Holder that the VM Grant has been successfully accomplished. After receipt of the approval by email, the Grant Holder will execute the payment of the grant.

Please note that the reimbursement of VM grantees will be done after the activity is over and the final report is submitted by the VM grantee. Exceptions to this rule cannot be granted.

How to apply for a VM Grant

1. All applicants must carefully read the funding and eligibility rules detailed in the COST Annotated Rules.

2. All applicants must register for an e-COST profile at https://e-services.cost.eu — adding their bank account details and a recent CV to their profile.

3. Applications need to be submitted through e-COST via https://e-services.cost.eu/activity/grants.

The following information will need to be filled in:

  • Title
  • Start and end date (within the active Grant Period, i.e. no overlap across two consecutive Grant Periods)
  • Budget requested by the applicant

The following documents will need to be uploaded:

  • Application form describing: Main Objective, description of the work to be carried out by the applicant, plan for participation, expected outcomes and description of the contribution to the Action MoU objectives; download the template here

4. The applicant will be formally notified of the outcome of their VM Grant application by the Grant Awarding Coordinator no more than 4 weeks after the application was received.

5. Successful applicants need to complete and submit a VM Grant report, within 30 days from the end date of the activity, or 15 days after the end of the Grant Period, whichever date comes first.

Please note that COST can request additional information to substantiate the information contained within the documents submitted by VM Grant applicants.