Maximum 2 pages

General remark: You need not reiterate organisational features common for all COST Actions, described in the “Rules and Procedures for Implementing COST Actions” (doc. COST 4159/10). As a rule, organisational matters should be mentioned only if you intend to apply them in some specific way. In order to avoid unnecessary repetitions or contradictions, please refer to Rules and Procedures when drafting this section.

• Give a clear picture of the management and organisation of the Action.
• Reflect the fact that a COST Action is implemented through a concerted action, which means that the research is carried out in and financed by the participating countries, while COST provides the necessary co-ordination.
• Use organisational features common to all COST Actions, but also allow for limited Action-specific variations (e.g. you may want to introduce a Steering Group, an Editorial Board, STSM manager, etc.). Consult “Rules and Procedures for implementing COST Actions”. Keep in mind in particular that the Management Committee remains ultimately in charge of the Action, whilst it may arrange for particular support to it or its Chair in their tasks.
• Mention milestones – major achievements that are crucial to the future direction of the Action.
• Explain how the coordination of national research will be implemented (including the creation of possible common research teams, conferences and workshops, short-term scientific missions or other exchanges between laboratories, training schools, websites, etc.).
• Be aware of the obligation to set up an Action specific website that will not duplicate general information already available from the COST website (e.g. list of Parties, MC list, etc.) and to keep it updated: Include a plan to keep this website up to date, both to serve the needs of the participants and with the specific aim of ensuring the dissemination or exploitation of the results of the Action.
• As a rule, do not list names of interested research establishments and scientists.(This will be part of the Additional Information.)

The Action will be co-ordinated by the Management Committee (MC), which as usual will have a Chair, a Vice-Chair and representatives from the participating countries. The scientific work of the Action will be overseen by four Working Groups (WGs), as described in Sections D.1 and D.2. Each WG will have a co-ordinator who will participate in the MC meetings in order to report on progress. There will also be a website manager and a co-ordinator of Short-Term Scientific Missions (STSMs).

The main responsibilities of the MC are:

• election of the Chair and Vice-Chair, and appointment of the WG co-ordinators, the website manager and the STSM co-ordinator
• ensuring that the planned activities of the Action (MC meetings, WG meetings, STSMs, workshops, training schools) take place in such a way as to meet the objectives of the Action
• producing the annual reports and final report of the Action
• ensuring that the activities of the WGs are co-ordinated
• ensuring that the scientific results of the Action are disseminated appropriately, including via the website

The MC will have an annual meeting, which will be part of the annual workshop of the Action (see below). The website of the Action will have a discussion forum for the MC, which will be used for continuous discussion of the progress, direction and activities of the Action. At half-year points, between the annual meetings, the MC will have a tele-conference for more formal discussion of any necessary business.

Each WG will use a continuous process of discussion, led by its co-ordinator, in order to achieve its objectives. This discussion will take place in a forum on the Action's website, by email, and by Skype audio/video calls. Also, at the annual workshop of the Action, there will be discussion sessions related to the theme of each WG, and a more formal meeting of the members of each WG.

There will be an annual workshop of the Action, at which all participants will meet to exchange ideas, report on progress and plan further collaboration. The workshops will also be open to participation by any interested people.

The Action will organise two training schools, in Years 2 and 4. These will be aimed mainly at PhD students and junior researchers. Courses will be contributed largely, but not exclusively, by participants in the Action.

STSMs are an important part of the activity of the Action. They will consist of short visits, typically of one or two weeks but exceptionally of longer duration, between participating sites. STSMs are primarily intended for PhD students and early-career researchers to visit other research groups in order to acquire new expertise or to contribute their expertise to particular projects. They will facilitate the exchange of ideas between participating institutions and will help PhD students and early-career researchers to develop contacts and collaborators which will be of benefit to their later careers.

The website of the Action will be set up at an early stage, and will be used extensively for discussion in a collection of forum areas for the MC and each WG. The website will also be essential for dissemination of the results of the Action, as described in Section H.

The reports produced by the WGs and the MC, and the published material from the annual workshops and the training schools, constitute a series of milestones for the Action. Specifically:

• M1 (end of Year 1): State-of-the-art reports by each WG. First Annual Report by each WG. First Annual Report of the Action. Published proceedings of the first workshop.
• M2 (end of Year 2): Second Annual Report by each WG. Second Annual Report of the Action. Published proceedings of the second workshop. Published tutorial material from the first Training School.
• M3 (end of Year 3): Third Annual Report by each WG. Third Annual Report of the Action. Published proceedings of the third workshop.
• M4 (end of Year 4): Final report by each WG. Final report of the Action. Published proceedings of the fourth workshop. Published tutorial material from the second Training School.

These milestones will enable the MC to monitor the progress of the Action towards the achievement of its objectives, and to plan changes in the work programme if necessary.

• Working Groups are a useful way of extending the Action beyond the membership of the Management Committee and of sharing workloads.
• An Action has normally 4, but not more than 6 Working Groups.
• If you plan Working Groups, explain their organisation (without repeating unnecessarily the “Scientific Programme” given under Section D).

The Action will have four Working Groups, which are described in Sections D.1 and D.2. A co-ordinator for each WG will be appointed by the MC. Membership of the WGs will be determined by the interests of the participants in the Action. It is expected that many participants will belong to more than one WG, and this will help to ensure compatibility between the directions being taken by the WGs.

• Address possible liaisons and interaction with other COST Actions and other European and international research programmes, such as ESF, FP, EUREKA!, etc.

• Indicate how these interactions will be organised: by exchange of information, meetings, by joint seminars or any other means.

The Action will liaise with the EU FP7 projects mentioned in Section B.4. In the case of ASCENS and HATS, which have participants in common with the Action, it will be straightforward to establish contact and propose exploratory joint meetings. In the case of ANIKETOS, an initial approach will be made by the Chair of the Management Committee and the co-ordinators of the Working Groups. Representatives of those projects, as well as others that may be identified during the course of the Action, will be invited to participate in relevant meetings and workshops of the Action. It is expected that the greatest benefit of interaction with the projects mentioned in Section B.4 will come from access to a wider range of practical case studies and scenarios.

The following paragraph is compulsory:

“This COST Action will respect an appropriate gender balance in all its activities and the Management Committee will place this as a standard item on all its MC agendas. The Action will also be committed to considerably involve early-stage researchers. This item will also be placed as a standard item on all MC agendas.”

Please add any additional support the Action plans concerning gender balance and the involvement of early-stage researchers, in particular with respect to the organisation of training schools, STSMs etc. Explain how you intend to realise capacity building.

This COST Action will respect an appropriate gender balance in all its activities and the Management Committee will place this as a standard item on all its MC agendas. The Action will also be committed to considerably involve early-stage researchers. This item will also be placed as a standard item on all MC agendas.

It is well known that computer science does not have a good gender balance. This applies to every level from undergraduate courses through PhD students and junior researchers to university faculty members and senior researchers. However, the scientific community proposing this Action has a better gender balance than computer science as a whole. The list of experts contains 12 female members from a total of 58, i.e. more than 20%, which compares favourably with a typical ratio of 15% or less among the faculty members of many university departments. These female members include early-stage researchers, mid-career scientists and senior researchers/professors. There are also a significant number of female PhD students among the research groups participating in the Action. Building on this strong initial position, the Action will ensure that female participants are actively involved in all areas, including membership of the MC and the WGs, participation in Short-Term Scientific Missions, presentation of results at the annual workshop, and participation in the Training Schools as both lecturers and participants.

The list of experts also contains many early-stage researchers, and all of the research groups involved in the Action have PhD students who are likely to become post-doctoral researchers during the Action. This Action will ensure that early-career researchers have the opportunity to participate fully in scientific meetings associated with the Action. In particular, short-term scientific missions will benefit early-career researchers. Training schools organised by the Action will benefit PhD students and early-career researchers as participants. Also, when appropriate, early-career researchers will be invited to present courses at training schools, which will benefit their career development. Similarly, active involvement in the WGs and in preparation of their annual reports will be valuable experience for early-career researchers.

Simon: Please precede remarks with your name.

Simon: I have added some rough text to this section.

Lucia: The University of Firenze is a member of the ASCENS consortium, the last lines of section E.3 should be revised (?).

Luca: In the draft the phrase “This COST action will respect an appropriate gender balance…” at the beginning of E.4 appears twice.