A very important time for me personally was when the former Czechoslovakia joined the COST Programme in 1991. We participated from the beginning in collaboration with, mainly, my colleagues from Prague. After the splitting of the former Czechoslovakia in 1993, we became as researchers and scientists full COST members from Slovakia.
Another significant time was in the nineties when I participated in 3 COSTActions (239 – Ultra-High-Capacity Optical Transmission Networks. Chair:E. Le Coquil, France, 241 – Characterization of advanced optical fibres for the photonic network. Chair: P. Di Vita, Italy, and 240 – Modelling and measuring advanced photonic telecommunication components. Chair: G. Guekos,Switzerland) focused on different areas of optical communication networks, photonic integrated circuits and systems. It was the springboard for my future career as professor of telecommunications.
The same happened to many researchers in Slovak universities and at the Slovak Academy of Sciences. There is a strong correlation between activities in COST Actions and a successful career as researchers at home institutions. I see many positive examples at universities in Slovakia and at the Slovak Academy of Science. The participation in COST opened doors for them to the world of internationally recognised research.
Additionally, I would like to recall COST Action 231 – Evolution of land mobile radio, in which the frames of the GSM mobile systems were defined for further standardisation of these systems. It was in my view one of the most important contributions to the development of new mobile communication era. In parallelto that, COST started with COST Action 244 and 244bis – Biomedical effects of electromagnetic fields; Chair: Z. Koren, Croatia, which was also needed to support GSM development and to decrease concerns about adverse effects of electromagnetic fields of mobile networks generally. Finally, I would like to mention that Prof Guekos (COST Action 240) was the first person at COST who started (around 1998) a serious discussion about new challenges in basic research of nanomaterials as a very important field of interdisciplinary science for the future.”
Prof Milan Dado, COST Committee of Senior Officials for Slovakia, University of Zilina