CA23125 COST project

TETRA – The mETamaterial foRmalism approach to recognize cAncer 

Call for Virtual Mobility Grant (VMG)

A call for Virtual Mobility Grant is currently open until 31/08/2025, for VMG activities taking place from 15/08/2025 to 30/09/2025. The applications will be evaluated continuously upon their receipt, until covering the allocated budget. The call will be extended if the budget allocated for VMGs in this Grant Period of the project is not entirely spent.

Responsible

Miklós Veres (veres.miklos@wigner.hun-ren.hu)

What is Virtual Mobility Grant?

Virtual Mobility grant consists of a collaboration in an online setting among researchers or innovators within the COST Action, to exchange knowledge, learn new techniques, etc.

Virtual Mobility grant benefits to:

• COST Action: uses a flexible tool to implement online activities inside the network, achieve the MoU objectives and significantly increase their impact and reach. Contributes to European leadership in knowledge creation and increasing its innovation potential;

• VM grantee: develop(s) capacity in online collaboration and networking in a pan-European framework.

Examples of activities that can be performed by the VM grantee are:

• Virtual mentoring scheme, with special focus on activities and exchanges that can generate capacity building and new skills, particularly for Young Researchers and Innovators (e.g. managerial skills, methodological skills, communication skills, etc);

• To support the harmonisation and standardisation of methods and procedures within the Action networking activities, e.g.

o setting up a survey amongst all Action members to collect different results and outcomes from experiments done in their respective labs and research groups;

o coordinating the discussions to create common protocols to be used by the network afterwards;

o preparing questionnaires and response scales to be used by the Action members as part of online networking activities.

• To support the implementation of research coordination related activities that do not necessarily require in-person presence, e.g.

o computational or modelling activities;

o data analysis of the Action for a specific report or activity.

The VMG activity must be performed within the active Grant Period of the Action.

More information can be found in Annex 2 of the Annotated Rules for COST Actions.

Funding Scheme

The Virtual Mobility Grant provides a contribution for the overall effort, not necessarily covered by an employer or by a Grant Holder institution.  VMG is decided by the Action MC or Core Group on proposal of the evaluators and should reflect the duration, scope and complexity of the task and activities to be covered via the VM grant.

The maximum amount of the VMG is EUR 1,500. Upon approval of the Grant, the Action MC can decide to lower the requested grant.

Eligibility

Eligible individuals to apply for an VMG must be affiliated to a legal entity in

• a COST Full Member state

• COST Cooperating Member (Israel)

• COST Partner Member (South Africa), with the grant being funded by the Partner Member

• a Near Neighbouring Country

• a specific organization among EU Institutions, Bodies, Offices and Agencies, with the grant being funded by the organization,

• a European RTD Organisation.

A complete definition of the terms used above is given in the document “Country and organisations table”.

The affiliation of an individual or a legal entity is determined as per Article 4.1.1.1.1 of the Annotated rules for COST Actions

Application

Calls for Virtual Mobility Grant applications are periodically shared amongst the participants of the COST Action. In response to a call, the VMG application shall be submitted online in e-COST using dedicated forms:

https://e-services.cost.eu/activity/grants/add.

Information to be provided in the application:

To be filled in e-COST:

• Title;

• Start and end date (within the active Grant Period, i.e. no overlap across two consecutive Grant Periods);

• Budget requested by the applicant;

To be uploaded to e-COST:

• Application form (template available on e-COST) describing: Main objective, description of the work to be carried out by the applicant, plan for participation, expected outcomes and description of the contribution to the Action MoU objectives;

• Other documents required by the Action (e.g. recommendation letter, etc).

The above information will be visible to the holders of leadership positions and any evaluation committees in the Action for evaluation purposes.

Applications must be eligible (see Annex 2 of the Annotated Rules for COST Actions) and in line with the Action research topics.

The applications will be evaluated after their receipt by the VMG responsible, together with the WG leaders based on
• scientific quality
• feasibility
• benefit to the development of the COST Action.

The selection will follow the COST policies on inclusiveness (gender, age, geography).

The final ranking will be approved by the Action Chair and Co-Chair.
The researchers who applied to the call will receive the results of the selection from the VGM responsible.

The selected researchers should wait for the official invitation from the Grant Holder before starting the implementation of the VMG activity.

Implementation

• Upon approval of the application, the Grantee receives a Grant Letter from the Grant Holder stating the approved amount and the conditions for receiving the grant.

• The Grantee performs the tasks in line with the approved application.

• Once the activity has ended, the grantee submits the required report (report to the Action MC on the work developed, main outcomes and achieved outputs of the Virtual Mobility, and description of the future follow up collaboration) on e-COST within 30 days after the end date of the activity or 15 days after the end of the Grant Period, whichever comes first.

• The grant will be paid by the Grant Holder Institution after the completion of the activity and approval of all required report/documentation.

Selection criteria and scoring

The VMG applications will be evaluated according to the following criteria and scoring.

Criteria	Max. score, points
Relevance of the VMG activity to the objectives of the CA23125 COST project	5
Benefits of the VMG activity to the COST project	5
Suitability of the planned activity for implementation in virtual form	5
Financial justification of the requested VMG amount	5
Threshold	13 (of max. 20)