• H2020
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The Committee of Senior Officials (CSO) of the COST Association has accepted Montenegro as its latest member.

During a two-day CSO meeting taking place in Swedish capital Stockholm, which ends today, Montenegro moves from being a Near Neighbour Country to a full member of the COST Association. The Balkan state has already been actively participating in a number of COST Actions, covering scientific and technological research activities spanning various fields, such as forestry, ICT, and food and agriculture.

Speaking about the announcement, Dr Ángeles Rodríguez-Peña, president of the COST Association, said: “Openness is at the heart of COST. It has indeed a long tradition of being accessible to researchers from Near Neighbour Countries. This is why we are very happy to announce today the admission of Montenegro as a full member of COST, and we would like to thank and encourage them to keep on nurturing COST innovation-driven S&T networks.”

Montenegro becomes the 36th full member of the association, allowing researchers, engineers and scholars to thoroughly benefit from the COST networking opportunities. Furthermore, the country will now have the right to attend and to vote at the CSO meetings through its appointed representatives.

Adding his thoughts, Darko Petrušić, the newly appointed Montenegrin CSO member, expressed his country’s commitment to active participation: “We value the role COST has been playing already in connecting Montenegrin researchers with peers all over Europe. We are already participating in 14 running COST Actions and look forward to engaging more actively in European research communities. Soon a COST National Co-ordinator will be appointed to engage Montenegro proactively also from a national point of view”.

As part of the COST Inclusiveness Target Countries, Montenegro is expected to become a key contributor to the Excellence and Inclusiveness Policy of the association. COST is supported by Horizon 2020.