Conference Grants are exclusively reserved for PhD students and ECI’s with a primary affiliation in an institution located in an ITC.

• An applicant can be considered as being an ECI when the time that has elapsed between the award date of the applicant’s PhD and the first day of the conference, event or activity she/he is applying for does not exceed 8 years;
• PhD students must demonstrate their enrolment in a PhD School;
• The following countries are considered as ITC: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Croatia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Republic of Serbia and Turkey.

The following eligibility criteria apply:

1. The applicant must make an oral/poster presentation (but oral presentation will be preferred) at the conference in question and must be listed in the official event/conference program. The main subject of the oral presentation / poster presentation must be on the topic of the Action and must acknowledge COST (see Section 9 of Vademecum).
2. The participation of each applicant must be pre-approved by the Action MC.
3. European Conferences are preferred, but conferences elsewhere can be considered as well.

The maximum financial support for the awarded applicant will be 1500 Euro. If the total cost of the conference is higher than 1500 Euro, the applicant has to proof she/he has been granted the difference from the other source. For detailed rules regarding eligibility and financial support, please see the relevant sections of the COST Vademecum.

In order to apply the applicants must carefully read the funding rules detailed herewith and in Section 9 of the COST Vademecum (cost.eu/download/COSTVademecum).
One has to note that COST Action makes refunds! No money is available in advance!
The application process is as follows:

1. The Applicant will first need to ‘create e-COST account’ (if do not have already one) – which will include the details of the bank account where the grant will be lodged if your ITC-CG application is approved and the conference, event or action successfully completed.
2. The Applicant must complete in English and submit an application using e-COST account:e-services.cost.eu/user/login by creating Conference Grant request. Further guidance on where to find this option is available here.
3. The ITC CG Coordinator will be notified of the request. After that application will be evaluated by a committee composed of the ITC Conference Grant Manager and the Vice-chair. On the base of committee decision ITC Conference Grant Manager will approve or reject the request.
4. If the request is approved the GH is notified and sends out the Grant Letter on e-COST. 5. The Applicant has to go on e-COST account to ITC Conference Gants and click Approved Applications and then Activate the application and verify details and click Send Grant Letter.

STSM application procedure will be conducted on line VIA E-COST PLATFORM and, in parallel, by E-MAIL TO THE ITC CG MANAGER.

• ON LINE SUBMISSION VIA E-COST PLATFORM:, the applicant must use the on-line registration tool and register the STSM application by logging into e-COST (e-services.cost.eu/user/login/STSM).

Within e-cost application for ITC Conference Grant you will be asked for:

1. To fill ITC Conference Grant application form (after finishing you can download this through the e-cost system).
2. To add your CV (including list of academic publications, if any) as supporting document
3. To add Short description of your involvement in our COST Action as supporting document
4. Acceptance letter from the conference organizers (confirming either your speaking slot or your poster presentation) as supporting document
5. A copy of the abstract or poster submitted to the conference as supporting document.

Successful conference grant holders must properly acknowledge their COST financial support on their posters or presentations („supported by EpiCatch COST Action CA19125“ + logo),

• SUBMISSION TO ITC CG MANAGER: In parallel with e-cost application, the applicants should send an e-mail to the members of the ITC CG evaluating committee (ITC conference manager -Miroslav Baránek, email: baranek@mendelu.cz; Vicechair of EPICATCH Eirini Kaiserli email: Eirini.Kaiserli@glasgow.ac.uk; + third person) with the following documents:

- ITC Conference Grant application sent as .pdf downloaded from the e-cost or as word document answering to all items included in e-cost application
- pack of supporting documents (CV, description of involvement in our COST action, accptence letter from konference organisers, abstract or poster submitted to conference).

In addition to the formal eligibility criteria detailed above, all applications will be assessed against the following criteria of scientific merit:

• Does the conference (or topic of the panel etc.) fall within the remit of COST Action Epicatch ?
• Is the topic of the conference proposal within the remit of COST Action Epicatch and will it likely make a significant contribution to the debates within the action?
• Is the proposal internally coherent, logical, with a clearly discernible structure?
• Is the presentation likely to make a significant contribution to the candidate’s scientific and professional development?

Please note that the application should be submitted at least 20 days before the conference start date. Applications will be processed all year-round, conditional on the conference taking place within respective Grant Period.

If you have been selected as an ITC Conference Grant Recipient, you will receive your grant after the conference. After your conference, the eCOST System will automatically ask you to submit a Scientific Report, which you need to provide in the 30 days after the Conference has ended. Please remember to ask someone to take a picture of you during your presentation so that we can showcase your involvement on our website (with your prior consent, of course). We will send the grant to your bank account once your scientific report has been approved by selection committee as acceptable.