Call for Young Researcher and Innovator (YRI) and Inclusiveness Target Country (ITC) Conference Grants
Posting date: 6 July 2026
The COST Action InterCoML, a research network concerned with exploring and exploiting connections between control theory and machine learning, welcomes applications for Young Researcher and Innovator (YRI) Conference Grants and Inclusiveness Target Country (ITC) Conference Grants, to allow Young Researchers and researchers based in ITCs, respectively, to present their work at high-level international conferences and workshops covering topics related to the Action.
Who can apply?
To be eligible, you must:
Be an Young Researcher or Innovator, defined as being under 40 years of age (in the case of YRI Conference Grants); OR be affiliated to an institution located in an Inclusiveness Target Country or Near Neighbour Country (NNC) except Russia (in the case of ITC Conference Grants);
Present a talk or a poster on a subject related to the Action at the conference you wish to attend. There is no a priori restriction on the conference or workshop you may attend; however, the event should be clearly relevant to the topics and objectives of the Action, and, barring exceptional and well-justified cases, the event should take place in a different country from the one in which you are based.
The event you wish to attend must finish by 15 October, 2026, at the latest. Applications may be submitted at any time via e-COST, and will be assessed on a rolling basis until the available funding has been allocated, or the deadline of 15 October, 2026 is reached. Every effort will be made to notify applicants of the outcome within two weeks of submission.
What do Conference Grants provide?
According to COST rules:
Maximum grant: 2500€ for face-to-face conferences covering travel, accommodation, subsistence expenses, registration fees, or 500€ for registration fees to attend online conferences.
Grants are contributions rather than full reimbursements. Differentiated rates may apply according to the cost of living in the conference location. In the event of a successful application, a lower amount may be awarded than was requested.
Grants may be combined with other funding sources, which must be acknowledged.
The financial support awarded is a contribution to the overall expenses associated with attending the conference and may not cover all costs. Payment is issued after the event has taken place and the final report has been approved.
How to apply?
All applications must be submitted via the e-COST system at https://e-services.cost.eu/activity/grants. If you do not already have an account you will need to create one, and provide your bank details for potential grant transfer. Your application must include all of the following information:
A short CV, including a list of publications or other research outputs if appropriate;
A letter or other confirmation of acceptance from the conference organizers, confirming your talk or poster slot;
A copy of the abstract of the talk or poster to be presented;
A brief justification of the amount requested, ideally in the form of an estimate of expenses. You should also mention whether the grant will be complemented by other funding sources; be aware that requests for lower amounts have a higher chance of success. If you will need to pay a registration fee, this should be specified; if the fee is not listed on the event's website, please provide a printout or other confirmation of the size of the fee.
Evaluation criteria
Applications will be evaluated according to COST’s principles of excellence, fairness, inclusiveness, and balanced participation. The following criteria will be applied in particular:
Scientific merit of the work to be presented, and the track record of the applicant compared with their academic age;
Relevance of the application and the conference to the topics and objectives of the Action;
Geographical, gender and Working Group balance among grantees;
Expected outputs, including visibility of the Action, and the likely establishment of new contacts and collaborations.
After the conference
After the event has finished, you must upload the following documentation to e-COST, for approval. If the event takes place in October 2026, please submit all documentation by 31 October, 2026, in order to allow for processing by the end of the COST Grant Period:
