Founded in 1971 and based in Brussels, COST has laid the foundations for coordinated cooperation in research and development in Europe. Switzerland is a founding member of COST. The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) is responsible for the financial, scientific and administrative aspects of COST in Switzerland.
COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is a Europe-wide intergovernmental framework for the coordination of research activities. COST promotes the networking of nationally funded research activities and has a total of well over 30 Member States In addition, research institutes of non-Member States may also take part in certain Actions.
COST's bottom-up approach allows the free choice of research topics. COST is therefore characterized by a wide variety of actions in very different scientific disciplines.