Short-term Scientific Missions

How to apply

Applications are made through your e-COST profile. It is necessary to register to the COST action.

Applications for the 2025 call are accepted until February 1st included.  Results will be communicated to the applicants by February 20, 2025.

Eligibility

The following eligibility criteria apply:

• The duration of the visit may range from 5 days to four weeks, but may be extended if funding from other sources is available.

• Applicant must be affiliated in a COST member country; the host institution must be located in a different COST member country. This includes COST cooperating member and partner member countries. See the COST website for a list of COST members, cooperating members and partner members.

• Applicant must be registered to one of the work groups.

• The aim of the visit must be to advance a specific research objective within the broad research area covered by the action.

• Applicant must acknowledge COST action THEORY-CHALLENGES as follows: "This work was supported by a short term scientific mission grant from the COST action CA22113 THEORY-CHALLENGES".

• Applicant must write a scientific report within 30 days after the visit.

• A given applicant cannot apply to more than one visit during a given Call.

• The current Call covers scientific visits starting from March 3, 2025 and ending no later than July 30, 2025.

Supporting documents

Supporting documents include

• A research statement included in the application form

• A Curriculum Vitae including a valid link to publications on INSPIRE or arXiv;

• A letter from the host scientist endorsing the visit;

• A budget estimate (please indicate in the research statement if you or the host institution have access to funding from other sources).

Evaluation and selection of applicants

Applications will be selected by the Grant Evaluation Committee, composed of Profs. L. Anguelova, N. Bobev, P. Caputa, J.Erdmenger, C. Hoyos, R. Monteiro, V. Puletti, E. Tonni, J. Rosseel, R. Schiappa, S. Vandoren, K. Zarembo, chaired by the Grant Awarding Coordinator (B. Pioline) and with the participation of the Diversity Coordinator (N. Buyukcizmeci). 

Applications will be judged on the solidity of the research project, quality of the candidate's past work, alignment with the topics of the Action, and evidence of interest from the host, while aiming for diversity at the geographic, thematic and gender levels. Junior researchers (PhD students and postdoctoral fellows) are particularly encouraged to apply. Applications by permanent researchers with limited access to funding will also be considered. Priority will be given to applicants who were not already funded in the previous Application rounds (2023, 2024).

Financial support

Support will be granted in the form of a lump sum covering travel and/or subsistence. Successful applicants are responsible for making their own travel and housing arrangements, and must submit an expense claim and scientific report within 30 days after the visit, after approval of which the payment will be disbursed. Note that the allocated amount will not exceed 4000 Euros by COST rules, and will depend on the length of the visit.

The call closed on February 1st, 2025. The following STSMs have been funded:

• Adrita Chakraborty, from Krakow U, visiting Ecole Polytechnique Palaiseau

• Giuseppe Di Giulio, from Stockholm U, visiting ENS Paris

• Andriana Makridou, from IFT Madrid, visiting KU Leuven

• Victor Mishnyakov, from Nordita, visiting U. Edinburgh

• Ángel Jesús Murcia Gil, from U. Barcelona, visiting Charles U in Prague

• David Osten, from Wroclaw U, visiting ETH Zurich

• Hynek Paul, from KU Leuven, visiting ENS Lyon

• Shan-Ming Ruan, from VUB, visiting IFT Madrid

• Alessandro Testa, from U. Parma, visiting Imperial College London

• Enrico Turetta, from U. Padova, visiting King's College London

This call is now closed. It covered visits starting from January 8 and ending no later than July 30, 2025. The visits of the following scientists have been funded:

• Alvaro Arboleya (University of Oviedo) to  Uppsala University

• Pietro Benetti Genolini (Université de Genève) to  Imperial College London

• Gabriele Casagrande (Ecole Polytechnique Palaiseau) to  University of Oviedo 

• Ana Climent (University of Barcelona) to University of Edinburgh 

• Lewis Cole (University of Swansea) to Sorbonne  Université

• Ariunzul Davgadorj (Masaryk University) to Padova University

• Marina David (KU Leuven) to University of Barcelona

• Giacomo Giorgi (Murcia University) to Rijksuniversiteit Groningen

• Maxwell Hutt (Imperial College London) to Université Libre de  Bruxelles

• Mario de Marco (ULB) to University of Birmingham

•  Ayan Kumar Patra (IFT Madrid) to University of Durham 

• Yein Lee (Uppsala University) to  DESY Hamburg

• Hui Liu (Yerevan Physics Institute) to Jagiellonian University Krakow 

• Javier Moreno (University of Barcelona) to SISSA Trieste

• Alexia Nix (University of Iceland) to University of Southampton 

• Antonia Paraskevopoulou (Max Planck Institute Munich) to KU Leuven

• Dimitrios Patramanis  (Warsaw University) to Nordita Stockholm

• Lechen Qu (IFT Madrid) to  Vrije Universiteit Brussel

•  Mikel Sanchez-Garitaonandia (Ecole Polytechnique Palaiseau) to Helsinki Institute of Physics

• Carlos Shahbazi (UNED Madrid) to Horia Hulubei National Institute Bucharest 

• Sinan Soysuren (University of Vienna) to IPHT Saclay 

• Colin Sterckx (University of Padova) to University of Swansea 

• Ioannis Tsiares (IPHT Saclay) to University of Amsterdam

• Evangelos Tsolakidis (University of Iceland) to Niels Bohr Institute

This call is closed. It covered visits starting from January 8, 2024 and ending no later than July 30, 2024. The visits of the following scientists have been funded:

• Guillermo Arias-Tamargo (Imperial College London) to Uppsala University

• Stefano Baiguera (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) to NBI Copenhagen

• Pablo Saura Bastida (Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena) to Durham Univeristy

• Nicolò Brizio (University of Turin) to York University

• Elia de Sabbata (University of Turin) to King’s College

• Saskia Demulder (Ben Gurion University of the Negev) to King’s College

• Marco Fazzi (University of Sheffield) to Padova University

• Emil Have (Niels Bohr Institute) to SISSA

• Pedram Karimi (University of Warsaw) to Uppsala University

• Osama Khlaif (University of Brimingham) to LPTHE Paris

• Gabriel Oliveira Lefundes (CEA Saclay) to CERN

• Quim Llorens (University of Barcelona) to Wurzburg University

• Vincent Menet (Sorbonne Université) to Imperial College London

• Rafał R. Suszek (University of Warsaw) to Horia Hulubei National Institute Bucharest

• Eduardo Garcia Valdecasas  (SISSA) to Oviedo University

• Stathis Vitouladitis (University of Amsterdam) to Cambridge University

How to apply

It is only possible to apply when a call is open. There is no call currently open. 

Application must be submitted through the COST Portal, by visiting

    https://e-services.cost.eu/activity/grants/add?type=STSM

and  selecting our Action CA22113. Please note that to apply it is necessary to have an account in the e-COST portal and have joined one or more of the Working Groups of the Action.

To log into your e-COST account, or to create a new account, please visit

    https://e-services.cost.eu/user/login

To apply to join the Action please visit

    https://e-services.cost.eu/action/CA22113/working-groups/apply