FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AUTH Cost actions
COST is an intergovernmental framework that promotes European cooperation in the fields of science and technology, and allows for a coordination of nationally funded research on a European level. COST helps to reduce the fragmentation of European investments in research and opens up the European research area to cooperation on a global level. The purpose of COST is to ensure that Europe will maintain a strong position in the fields of scientific and technical research for peaceful purposes, through an increase in European cooperation and interaction in this sector. This research initiative provides the opportunity for various national facilities, institutes, universities and the private sector to work and cooperate on a broad range of activities related to research and development. COST has clearly shown its influence in the fields of non-competitive research and cooperation, and in resolving environmental and cross-border problems. It has been used successfully to maximize the European added value for cooperation in research and has constituted a useful tool for furthering European integration.
Activity sectors
As a precursor of advanced interdisciplinary research, COST plays a very important role in the creation of a European research area. It previews and complements the activities included in the programming frameworks of the European Union, which constitute a “bridge” toward the scientific communities of emerging countries.
It also enhances the mobility of researchers all over Europe and promotes the creation of scientific excellence in nine basic sectors:
- Biomedicine and molecular biosciences.
- Food and agriculture.
- Forests, their products and services.
- Materials, natural sciences and nanosciences.
- Chemistry, molecular sciences and technologies.
- Environmental management.
- Information and communication technology.
- Transport and urban development.
- Societies, civilizations and health.
Thirty-six countries are members of the COST program: the 27 member-states of the European Union, Norway, FYROM, Serbia, Switzerland, Turkey, Iceland, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia as full members, and Israel as an associate member.
The participation of the Faculty of Engineering
The Faculty of Engineering at AUTH is a particularly active member of the COST program, due to the involvement of several Faculty members in the various sectors covered by the program. More specifically, the members of the Faculty of Engineering participate in the fields of transport and urban development, environmental management and ICT.
Through such actions, the framework of activities at the Faculty of Engineering at AUTH is enhanced, through its collaboration with other universities abroad and with European and international organizations, which has paved the way for new educational and research paths for its undergraduate and postgraduate students, and for the Faculty staff.