Brussels, 18 Mar 2005
COST Domains Restructuring - Common Position of Germany and France
Full text of Document 235/05
Suite of documents 235/05
The final declaration of the Dubrovnik Inter-ministerial Conference held on May th 2003 underlined key points to be addressed in order to ensure an efficient continuation of COST action:
"The Representatives of the Governments of the COST Member States and of the European Commission.....
(i) WELCOME the initiatives taken for the further modernisation of COST in conformity with relevant proposals by the Assessment Panel and invite the CSO to further develop the strategy for this;
(ii) RECOMMEND that the CSO reviews the structure of the research domains of COST, with a view to organising a more effective strategic management through smaller number of Technical Committees with increased interdisciplinary approach;
(iii) EMPHASISE that COST must ensure high quality standards through its Technical Committees according to the COST Guidelines for assessment, monitoring and evaluation of COST Actions approved by the CSO.
......."
In order to meet the two first items, COST has undertaken to date an assessment of three domains, namely Physics, Chemistry, and Materials. The final report of this assessment has been made
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161st CSO Meeting on 15-16 March 2005, Agenda Item 10 - Domain Restructuring and Domain Review = Proposal from the President
Full text of Document 236/05
Suite of documents 236/05
Background:
(1) The Representatives of the Governments of the COST Member States meeting at the COST Ministerial Conference in Dubrovnik on May 2003 "recommended that the CSO reviews the structure of the research domains of COST, with a view to organising a more effective strategic management through smaller number of Technical Committees with increased interdisciplinary approach" and " welcomed the initiatives taken for the further modernisation of COST in conformity with relevant proposals by the Assessment Panel and invited the CSO to further develop the strategy for this".
(2) The Assessment Panel was of the opinion: "that a system of periodic (for example 5 yearly), independent assessments of the value-added by TCs and their domains should be introduced. Such assessments should be simple and should focus on the impacts and relevance of activities in the international (ERA) context. Such reviews should be carried out by panels of senior practitioners from the research and research administration and policy communities, perhaps operating under the umbrella of other international scientific organisations". The ESF built in a system of "rolling" domain reviews into the contract with the European Commission.
(3) The restructuring of the Technical Committees with a view of reducing their number will be an important issue of the Mid term-Review in May from which the decision of which level of funding COST will receive from FP6 ( 50 or 80 M ) will be taken.
(4) In the objectives fixed by the new CSO President (Doc 244/04) the objective" to introduce suitable reforms in COST and in particular to optimise the structure of the domains" was
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Corrigendum to Note 161st CSO Meeting on 15-16 March 2005, Agenda Item 10 - Domain Restructuring and Domain Review
Full text of Document 233/05 Corrigendum 01
Suite of documents 233/05
Page 2, Point 5, second indent, add:
= TC Forestry and Forestry Products
Annex to the ANNEX, Page 13, add Point 10:
10. The Technical Committee shall consult with the COST Office on the application of resources within its domain, in order to provide the CSO with greater transparency on the allocation of budgetary appropriations in support of COST. The consultation of Technical Committees applies to the budgetary planning process, but not to budgetary decision-making or budgetary management, which is the responsibility of the COST Office.
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161st CSO Meeting on 15-16 March 2005, Agenda Item 11 - Revised Budget Allocation by Domain for 2005 - Provisional Budget for 2006
Full text of Document 217/1/05 Revision 01
Suite of documents 217/1/05
JAF, at its meeting on 16/17 February 2005, agreed to:
- approve the revised budget allocation by domain for 2005 as proposed by the COST Office (Annex 1);
- recommend that the CSO approve the provisional budget for 2006 (Annex 2).
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