Malta becomes a full member of C.O.S.T.

The Minister of Education and National Culture, Evarist Bartolo yesterday morning, Wednesday 23rd July, signed the official documents making Malta a full member of COST. The documents were signed during a meeting he had with Mr. Erwin van Rij. Mr. Erwin van Rij is an official responsible for research within the COST General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union. He is based full-time in Brussels and is Dutch by nationality. Dr. Rena Balzan Chairman of MCST was present at the meeting.

On 18 and 19th September a meeting of the Committee of COST senior officials will be held in Malta.

With full membership, Malta will be participating in the following COST Actions, on a more continuous basis, namely:

* COST Action 620 on Vulnerability and Risk Mapping for the Protection of Carbonate (KARST) Aquifers and COST Action 621 on Groundwater Management of Coastal Karstic Aquifers through the Malta Council for Science and Technology.

* COST 219 bis on "Future Telecommunications and Teleinformatics for disabled people: through Telemalta Corporation.

With Malta's new status as full member of COST, the Malta delegates will upon signature of the relevant Agreements, enjoy full voting rights with other delegates of COST member countries in the related COST Committee meetings and thus will have an equal say in the decision-making process.

The Member states are: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland Portugal, Rumania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom.

COST members countries have the possibility of choosing from the over 400 COST Actions which are in progress at present in 15 research fields, including telecommunications, informatics, medical research, materials, oceanography, agriculture and biotechnology, transport, environment, chemistry, meteorology and social sciences among others. COST member countries may participate in these Action "a la carte" depending on their national research priorities.

The main benefits of participation are the opportunity of making direct bilateral contacts with counterpart organisations in EU and Central and Eastern European countries and exchanging experiences and expertise on key science and technology-related policy issues. Participants in COST Actions also benefit from access to a collective pool of expertise which is Europe-wide and specialised on the particular research theme.

The COST Actions are chosen on the basis of a "bottom-up" approach whereby scientists and researchers propose the research themes to be tackled bearing in mind European and national priorities. Participants in COST Actions may be based in academia or the public and private sectors.

COST thus offers the possibility of extensive networking with European public research bodies in many key areas of science and technology. For a relatively much smaller proportion of funding than that required to participate in a Fourth Frame work Programme cooperative research project, research organisations can participate in COST actions and benefit from developing close links and sharing expertise with counterparts in Europe.

Another benefit of COST is that it offers the possibility of scientific cooperation in a number of areas which are often not specifically covered by the EU's Fourth Framework Programme. COST tends to be more specifically oriented at promoting cooperation between public research organisations and universities rather than the private sector. COST carries out very important work in developing European-wide research networks on key scientific themes.

COST offers Malta an almost unique venue for scientific dialogue and cooperation with Central and Eastern European countries, especially important as the focus is currently more on promoting Euro-Mediterranean links. Ideally, Malta should combine scientific cooperation with other Mediterranean countries with similar cooperation with the Central and Eastern European countries. While the Framework Programme's main advantage is the possibility of participating in high quality, in-depth, pre-competitive research programmes, COST's main strength is the facility of developing Europe-wide networking links on a broad range of areas.

COST offers researchers in the private sector the opportunity of developing their research and development capacity through collaboration with other private sector organisations in Europe. The contacts which they develop, can prove an important stepping stone for other forms of collaboration for example within the EU's INCO and MEDA programmes.