Fundamental challenges in theoretical physics

The COST Action THEORY-CHALLENGES (CA22113) invites applications for its Short Term Scientific Mission  (STSM) program.

The goal of this program is to foster collaboration between COST Action Participants by supporting scientific visits of researchers from a COST country to a host institution located in a different COST country, with the aim to advance a specific research objective within the broad research area covered by the Action. The duration of the visit may range from one week (5 days) to four weeks, but may be extended if funding from other sources is available.

The STSM program is open to any researcher with an academic affiliation in any of the COST countries, provided they are registered to one of the workgroups. Junior researchers (PhD students and postdoctoral fellows) are particularly encouraged to apply. Applications by permanent researchers with limited access to funding will also be considered.

Support will be granted in the form of a lump sum covering travel and/or subsistence. Successful applicants are responsible for making their own travel and housing arrangements, and must submit an expense claim and scientific report within 30 days after the visit, after approval of which the payment will be disbursed. Note that the allocated amount will not exceed 4000 Euros by COST rules, and will depend on the length of the visit.

Applications are selected by the Grant Evaluation Committee, composed of Profs. L. Anguelova, N. Bobev, P. Caputa, J. Erdmenger, R. Monteiro, E. Tonni, S. Vandoren, K. Zarembo, chaired by the Grant Awarding Coordinator (B. Pioline) and with the participation of the Inclusiveness Coordinator (N. Buyukcizmeci).

Applications round 2023

This call is already closed. It covers visits starting from January 8 and ending no later than July 30, 2024. The visits of the following scientists have been funded:
– Guillermo Arias-Tamargo (Imperial College London) to Uppsala University
– Stefano Baiguera (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) to NBI Copenhagen
– Pablo Saura Bastida (Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena) to Durham Univeristy
– Nicolò Brizio (University of Turin) to York University
– Elia de Sabbata (University of Turin) to King’s College
– Saskia Demulder (Ben Gurion University of the Negev) to King’s College
– Marco Fazzi (University of Sheffield) to Padova University
– Emil Have (Niels Bohr Institute) to SISSA
– Pedram Karimi (University of Warsaw) to Uppsala University
– Osama Khlaif (University of Brimingham) to LPTHE Paris
– Gabriel Oliveira Lefundes (CEA Saclay) to CERN
– Quim Llorens (University of Barcelona) to Wurzburg University
– Vincent Menet (Sorbonne Université) to Imperial College London
– Rafał R. Suszek (University of Warsaw) to Horia Hulubei Bucharest
– Eduardo Garcia Valdecasas  (SISSA) to Oviedo University
– Stathis Vitouladitis (University of Amsterdam) to Cambridge University

Applications round 2024

This round of applications will be announced in the autumn of 2024. Applications should be made through the COST portal before the deadline to be announced. Supporting documents include a research statement (not longer than one page for visits less than 2 weeks), a Curriculum Vitae including a valid link to publications on INSPIRE or arXiv, a letter from the host scientist endorsing the visit (if necessary, the latter can be sent privately to the Grant Awarding Coordinator, in that case please upload an empty letter), and a budget estimate (please indicate in the research statement if you or the host institution have access to funding from other sources).

ITC Conference Grant for Eurostrings 2024

The COST Action THEORY-CHALLENGES invites applications for its ITC Conference Grant Program. This program offers financial support to attend conferences in the fields relevant to the Action and, by COST rules, is targeted at young researchers (younger than 40 years old) from Inclusive Target Countries (the current list: Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Croatia, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Republic of North Macedonia, Republic of Serbia, Türkiye and Ukraine).

For this year, due to various administrative constraints the only eligible conference is the Eurostrings 2024 Conference, due to take place in Southampton from September 2 to 6, 2024. Support will be given in the form of a lump sum which will cover travel and local expenses as well as registration fee. ITC Conference Grantees are required to give a contributed talk at the conference. Applications should be submitted on the e-COST portal (see below for “how to apply”) before the deadline June 9th, 2024.

Applications will be selected by the Grant Evaluation Committee, composed of Profs. L. Anguelova, N. Bobev, P. Caputa, J. Erdmenger, R. Monteiro, E. Tonni, S. Vandoren, K. Zarembo, chaired by the Grant Awarding Coordinator (B. Pioline) and with the participation of the Inclusiveness Coordinator (N. Buyukcizmeci). Successful applicants will be notified by June 21st, 2024.

How to apply

Please log into your e-COST account at or create an account. If you are not a member of the Action, please apply to join one or more working group. To apply for an ITC grant please visit this link. You will have to fill in a form and, subsequently, upload the following documents:

1. The filled-in grant application template, which you may download from the portal (you may leave the section “Relevance of the Conference topic to the Action” blank in this case)

2. The acceptance letter from the Eurostrings organisers if any. You can also upload a blank document if you have not yet been invited to speak.

3. The abstract of your talk

4. As “other documents”, a CV with a list of publications.

As members of the hep-th community, it is pivotal to acknowledge our responsibility in minimising the environmental footprint of our scientific endeavours. Research indicates that large academic gatherings, like conferences and workshops, significantly contribute to carbon emissions due to travel, energy use, catering, and waste generation. Embracing sustainable practices in our event organisation is not only necessary to address the climate crisis but also serves as a tangible step toward reducing our collective carbon footprint, crucial for a more environmentally conscious scientific community. Our sustainability guidelines are explained in detail in the file linked below.

Our sustainability guidelines