Building today the networks that will lead European research tomorrow

Excellent research has never been an isolated activity, but this is becoming increasingly apparent within today’s European Research Area. For universities and research centres, actively participating in international networks, building relationships based on trust and gaining visibility within European scientific communities have become strategic priorities.

This dimension is particularly relevant in flagship programmes such as Horizon Europe, where the vast majority of the challenges facing the European Union are addressed through international collaborative projects. Building a strong consortium, however, is not simply a matter of bringing together organisations with complementary technical capabilities. It means creating communities that share knowledge, priorities and a common vision. In this context, COST Actions offer universities and research centres a way to expand their network of collaborators across Europe, gain visibility among potential partners and lay the foundations for future joint projects.

Networks led by young researchers

A COST Action does not directly fund research projects. Its purpose is to create and consolidate interdisciplinary networks in which researchers, innovators and other relevant stakeholders collaborate over a four-year period. One of their distinctive strengths is that these networks can become spaces for training, visibility and leadership development for a new generation of European researchers.

Through scientific meetings, working groups, training schools, short-term scientific missions and mobility activities, young researchers from different institutions and countries can establish international connections, exchange knowledge and contribute to defining new scientific agendas. For many, a COST Action represents one of their first opportunities to become part of a European scientific community and develop an international career path of their own. Its bottom-up nature also means that the scientific community itself determines the challenges around which it wishes to organise.

The outcome can be far more significant than a succession of networking activities. Over four years, a scientific community has the opportunity to identify knowledge gaps, compare and harmonise methodologies, share capabilities and develop a common agenda.

Incubators for future Horizon Europe consortia

This dynamic means that a COST Action can provide an ideal environment in which future Horizon Europe collaborations can mature, many of them driven by researchers who are currently at an early stage of their careers.

A COST network allows participants to cover much of this ground before a specific funding opportunity even emerges. They can discover which institutions have complementary capabilities, which researchers are ready to take on leadership roles, where scientific gaps remain and which questions require a more ambitious research effort. For young researchers, this process creates a pathway from participating in existing networks to actively helping shape their direction and, over time, leading new initiatives.

This does not mean that a COST Action should be conceived solely as preparation for securing subsequent funding. Its scientific purpose is much broader. Networks that generate knowledge collaboratively also create new opportunities and help develop the people who will lead European research in the future. Some of these collaborations may subsequently evolve into collaborative proposals under Pillar II of Horizon Europe or other European programmes.

A strategic investment for universities

From an institutional perspective, participation in COST should therefore be assessed beyond its immediate financial return. Its value also lies in its ability to strengthen universities’ presence within international scientific communities, position their researchers in emerging fields and create connections with other academic institutions, technology centres, companies and key stakeholders across the European R&D&I ecosystem.

In this context, COST places particular emphasis on the involvement of young researchers and innovators, offering them opportunities to develop international contacts, gain experience in scientific collaboration and take on responsibilities within European networks. The aim is not simply to facilitate their participation, but to create the conditions for them to become visible, active members and ultimately leaders of these communities.

Participation in COST should therefore not be regarded merely as an isolated activity undertaken by individual researchers, but as part of an institutional strategy for internationalisation, talent development and scientific positioning.

A strong network also needs a strong proposal

COST’s strategic potential explains why preparing a competitive proposal requires considerably more than bringing excellent researchers together around an attractive topic.

Proposals are assessed on scientific and networking excellence, impact and implementation. Applicants therefore need to explain not only why the scientific challenge is relevant, but also why a European network is necessary to address it, what added value collaboration between its participants will bring and how the proposed activities will build a community capable of generating results and long-term impact.

Strategic content review is particularly important in this context. An external perspective can help identify inconsistencies between objectives and activities, strengthen the European added value, clarify the networking rationale and ensure that the narrative responds directly to the evaluation criteria.

At Zabala Innovation, we support universities and research centres through specialist review and strategic optimisation of COST proposals. Our aim is to help transform the scientific expertise within a network into a coherent, competitive proposal aligned with evaluators’ expectations. Because the true potential of a COST Action does not end when a network is approved: that is when it begins to take shape.