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Short Term Scientific Missions (STSMs)

STSM Chair: Prof. Oksana Chubykalo-Fesenko, Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid, Spain

STSM Objectives

STSMs are inter-country exchange visits which aim at fostering the MAGNETOFON COST action objectives by allowing scientists to go to an institution or laboratory of another COST country with the aim of initiation and strengthening collaborations within the Action.

The research during STSMs should be performed within the objectives of one of the following working groups of the MAGNETOFON Actions

Criteria for eligibility

STSM applicants should be researchers from COST countries (see https://www.cost.eu/who-we-are/members/) or from approved by the MAGNETOFON Action near-Neighboring countries institutions (note that Russia is no longer eligible), visiting a research institution from an eligible country, different from that of the applicant.

Duration of STSM

Minimum 5 calendar days. Since we are in the last year of the Action, all STSMs should finish before 15th of September, 2022, and submit report before the end of September.

Financial support

The grant covers travel and subsistence based on a fixed sum (no receipts are required) and a requested budget. It does not necessary cover all expenses. Successful applications will receive 80-160 Euros per day (depending on the country) for logging and the travel subsidy (typically around 300 euros for short trips but up to 500 euros for long distance travels). Grant estimation must not exceed 160 euros per day for subsistence. The maximum grant cannot exceed 2500 euros (including both travel and subsistence for the whole STSM period).

Payment of the Grant will be made after the exchange visit and is subject to a scientific report (template available at http://www.cost.eu/STSM_report_template), received by the COST action within 30 days after the end day of the STSM and approved by the STSM coordinator. The host of STSM should confirm (by e-mail or report signature) that the STSM took place and the goals were reached.

Application

If you are interested in applying, go to https://e-services.cost.eu/ and log-in with your COST credentials, or create an account if you do not have one. Please, keep your CV in your COST profile updated, it will be used for evaluation of your application. Then select Actions → STSM Applications in the left menu and complete the on-line application form. The on-line application should include the following information

  • The working plan specifying the details of the research to be undertaken. Please, specify how it fits in one of the objectives of the corresponding working group
  • A tentative requested budget.
  • A letter of support from the host institution
  • Written agreement from the host institution that the STSM grant holder can perform the activities detailed in the STSM working plan

Once submitted to the COST office, download the form and send it by the deadline of the application period to the STSM coordinator (Oksana Chubykalo-Fesenko oksana@icmm.csic.es):

  • If you are a PhD student we also request a letter of support from your supervisor.

Deadline

In the last year of the MAGNETOFON Action the applications will be accepted permanently until August 15, 2022 and evaluated before the end of each month (in the case they are submitted at least one week before the month ends).

Selection of STSMs applications.

STSM applications will be selected by the STSM selection committee (STSM coordinator and 4 working group leaders). The applicants should clearly indicate the working group to which his/her proposal belongs and the WG leader will be asked to confirm the corresponding relation. Completely unrelated applications will be rejected directly.

The applications will be considered based on the designed system of points, which will be assigned by the selection committee determined by the following criteria:

On the scientific background, the criteria will be based on the relevance of the STSM to the objectives of the Action (0-2 points) and specifically to the nearest deliverables (1 point).

To comply with the general COST objectives, the following criteria will be also applied (in order of preference):

  1. The applicant is an Early Carrier Researcher (< 8 years after PhD) or a PhD student with a recommendation letter from his/her supervisor (1 point)
  2. The Applicant or the host institution belongs to Inclusiveness Target Country1 or the approved near-neighboring countries institution (1 point)
  3. The applicant belongs to the minority gender in the Action (1 point)
  4. Starting from the second year: the applicant or the host institution country did not receive STSMs in the previous year (1 point)

According to the COST policy 50% of the STSM budget should be dedicated to the Inclusiveness Target Countries1 benefits. The uniform distribution over the rest of the countries as well as over the WGs will be also enforced. The preference will be also given to one application per institution within one call. The second application from the same person in the subsequent calls is not excluded but will be given a low priority, based on the available funds.

PLEASE; DO NOT FORGET TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE COST ACTION IN PUBLICATIONS DERIVED FROM STSMs.