Together with the transitioning from Horizon 2020 to Horizon Europe, a number of updates have been made to the management rules of COST Actions. Several of these updates aim at simplifying participation to COST Actions.

All relevant documents are available via https://www.cost.eu/funding/how-to-get-funding/documents-guidelines/#documents-running-action and the most important information is summarized in the COST vademecum.

Here we provide an overview of the most relevant updates that have come into effect in November 2021.

1. New management of Working Group membership. A new tool has been developed for applying to become a WG member. WG members are now also listed on the COST website. This information will now also be used to estimate the size of the network, contributing to the determination of the budget for the following Grant Period.
2. Smaller Management Committee. The Action MC will now be composed of up to 2 MC Members per COST Full or Cooperating Member and up to 1 MC Observer per Specific Organisation. MC Substitute is no longer a permanent position, and researchers from Third States (IPC) and NNC will no longer be MC Observers.
3. New mandatory leadership position for a Grant Awarding Coordinator. For our Action, this position replaces and merges the previous STSM Coordinator and ITC Conference Grants Coordinator positions, and integrates the new Dissemination Conference Grants Coordinator and Virtual Mobility Grants Coordinator positions.
4. The concept of Early Career Researcher is replaced by that of Young Researcher and Innovator. A Young Researcher and Innovator is defined as a researcher or innovator under the age of 40.
5. The list of Inclusiveness Target Countries has been updated. Luxembourg is no longer considered an ITC. Greece on the other hand is now added to the list of ITCs, and so are the overseas territories of Spain and France.
6. ITC conference grants are now open to Young Researchers and Innovators from both ITCs and NNCs. More information on ITC conference grants is available via www.burden-eu.net/activities/itc-conference-grants.
7. Training Schools and other networking events such as STSMs can now take place in any country.