Inclusiveness Target Countries (ITC) Conference Grant is a COST-networking tool aimed to provide financial support (up to 2000 Euro for face-to-face or 500 Euro for virtual events) to Young researchers and Innovators for their participation in high-level conferences fully organized by a third party, i.e. not organized nor co-organized by the COST Action.

Eligibility criteria

1. The Applicant must be a Young researcher or Innovator up to 40 years
2. The Conference grants are exclusively reserved for Applicants with a primary affiliation in an institution located in an Inclusiveness Target Country / Near Neighbour Country (list available at https://www.cost.eu/uploads/2022/11/Annex-I-level-A-Country-and-Organisations-Table-Version-1.4.pdf)

1. The Applicant must present his results in a form of an oral or poster presentation at the conference (must be listed in the official program). The main subject of the presentation must be on the topic of the Action INNOGLY and must acknowledge COST.

Additional criteria

• One applicant can be awarded the maximum of two Conference Grants during the entire 18103 COST Action.
• The attendance at the conference must start and end during the same Grant Period (GP).

Deadlines

There will be two application deadlines for the ITC CG within GP4:

1^st deadline: 3rd March 2023

2^nd deadline: 12th April 2023

Applicants are going to receive the final feedback concerning their applications within 6 weeks from the deadline.

Conference Grants do not necessarily cover all of the expenses related to participating in a given conference. A Conference Grant is a contribution to the overall travel, accommodation and meal expenses of the selected Grantee. In the situation when the hosting institution supports meal expenses as part of the provisions offered in their conference package, the amount for subsistence afforded to each eligible participant must be deducted from the Grant. Documentary evidence of the conference fee amount must be provided by the applicant and in kind, must be archived by the Grant Holder along with the relevant administrative documents.

The amount of each award will also depend on the number of selected applications (total GP4 budget for ITC CG is EUR 3 500 for which approximately 3 grants will be awarded).

How to apply

1. To apply for a Conference Grant within the INNOGLY Cost Action (CA18103), please encode an ITC CG application by logging into e-COST and clicking on the ITC Conference Grants tab. Before filling the application, please consult the ITC Conference Grants User Guide^#. With any further questions please contact ITC Conference Grants Coordinator Olga Gornik (ogornik@pharma.hr) or Grant Awarding Coordinator Marko Anderluh (Marko.Anderluh@ffa.uni-lj.si).
2. The application form contains the following items which must all be filled in:

– Applicant’s details: Full name, Affiliation, Country, status (ECI or PhD student);

– Conference Grant details: action number, conference title, conference website, grant period, conference start and end date;

– Bank details;

– Financial support to be granted: conference fee, travel, accommodation and subsistence for meals if applicable;

– Supporting documents:

• ITC Conference grant application (based on e-COST template)
• CV;
• Acceptance letter from the conference organizers
• A copy of the abstract of the accepted oral or poster presentation

3. After the conference for the reimbursement approval:

• Scientific Report[*], financial report and Certificate of Attendance (to be submitted within 30 days from the end of the activity, within 15 days from the end date of the Grant Period or within a shorter timeframe as per Grant Holder/Grant Awarding Coordinator’s request to meet reporting deadlines)[†]
• Certificate of attendance
• Program of the conference or book of abstracts / proceedings indicating the presentation (oral or poster)
• Copy of the given presentation (oral or poster)

Evaluation of application and report

The applications will be evaluated by the ITC Conference Grant Committee and approved by the Grant Awarding Coordinator.

The Grant Awarding Coordinator will check and approve/reject report.

ITC Conference Grant Committee

Prof. Olga Gornik (ogornik@pharma.hr), Coordinator

Dr. Anna Bzducha-Wróbel (anna_bzducha_wrobel@sggw.pl), Member

Dr. Gianina Dodi (gianina.dodi@umfiasi.ro), Member

Prof. Luigi Lay (luigi.lay@unimi.it), Action Chair

Grant Award Coordinator

Prof. Marko Anderluh (Marko.Anderluh@ffa.uni-lj.si)

^# The Grant Awarding User Guide available on-line:

https://www.cost.eu/uploads/2021/12/Grant-Awarding-userguide.pdf

[*]Template available on Supporting documents on E-cost platform or on-line: http://www.cost.eu/ITCConference_Report

[†] Late submission, beyond the deadline will lead to the cancellation of the Grant reimbursement.