COST Committee of Senior Officials - 129th meeting
The 129th meeting of the COST Committee of Senior Officials took place in Sliema, Malta on 18 and 19 September 1997. The meeting was hosted by Malta, which formally joined COST (European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research) at the Prague Ministerial Conference in May 1997. COST now has 28 member states, and some 145 Actions, involving participants from at least two members, are currently under way. Recent applications for membership from Bulgaria, Cyprus, Latvia and Lithuania were discussed at the meeting. These four countries will be granted observer status at the next meeting of the Committee of Senior Officials. During the meeting, the Committee approved the participation of research institutes from non-member states in four COST Actions and approved the extension of one Action. In principle, eight new Actions were approved. Other decisions taken by the meeting included the approval of terms of reference for eight Technical Committees, approval of the establishment of an ad hoc working group on the environment. The Committee also considered the report of the working group on nanosciences and nanotechnology, and discussed the establishment of a permanent group.