Today, more than ever, science is built on the principles of collaboration and interdisciplinarity. This is partly because of rising research funding opportunities for projects, connecting partners from all over the world, combining different areas of expertise.

COST Actions are definitely one of these (European Union funded) instruments. As written on their website, the “European Cooperation in Science and Technology – COST – is a funding organisation for the creation of research networks, called COST Actions.”

COST Actions foster research collaboration by organizing meetings, workshops, trainings, conferences and creating networks and spaces where scientists can interact and together develop their ideas into concrete results. One in particular is also the story of how the idea of having a research institute in the area of renewable materials and sustainable buildings in Slovenia – the InnoRenew CoE – came to life.

Dr Michael Burnard, deputy director and an original planner of  the InnoRenew CoE, stated that involvement in COST Action FP1303, “Performance of Bio-based Building Materials”, was crucial for the establishment of the InnoRenew CoE. By joining the Action’s conferences, training school and other events, Dr Burnard and several other InnoRenew CoE employees got the chance to connect with researchers to further develop the initial idea and obtain the funding grant.

“COST introduced me to a wood research network in Europe. It was a stepping-stone for me and a building block of the InnoRenew CoE,” said Dr Burnard for the article Nurturing sustainable bio-based construction, published at the COST webpage in the section dedicated to Success Stories.