COSY COST Action

COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is a funding organisation for research and innovation networks. Our Actions help connect research initiatives across Europe and beyond and enable researchers and innovators to grow their ideas in any science and technology field by sharing them with their peers. COST Actions are bottom-up networks with a duration of four years that boost research, innovation and careers.

This COST Action aims to provide a computationally and experimentally sound foundation for the fundamental understanding and control of confined molecular systems. The resulting outcome will be translated into useful knowledge forming the basis for applications. These range from creating a new generation of materials including bio-materials, with immediate transfer to industry, to disclosing the chemistry occurring in space. 

“COSY” is the acronym for “Confined Molecular Systems: from the new generation of materials to the stars”, a COST Action (acronym for European Cooperation in Science and Technology). It is basically a platform for cooperation between research groups in Europe that have nationally funded projects in confined molecular systems. The COST Action “COSY” aims to provide computational and experimental building blocks for a fundamental understanding of confined molecular systems in order to be able to control them. The platform already brings together more than 180 groups from around 35 member countries of the European Union. It is structured in five strongly correlated working groups whose objectives range from a first-principles description of the interaction between a molecule and its environment, including the interstellar medium, to the synthesis of new materials with theranostic applications, energy conversion, and photocatalysis.

Working Groups

This COST Action aims to provide a computationally and experimentally sound foundation for the fundamental understanding and control of confined molecular systems. The resulting outcome will be translated into useful knowledge forming the basis for applications. These range from creating a new generation of materials including bio-materials, with immediate transfer to industry, to disclosing the chemistry occurring in space.

COSY will tackle these and other challenges through 5 strongly correlated work packages:

Consists on defining the application ranges of established electronic structure methods for confined molecular systems, on new developments in electronic structure theory to characterize them, and on ML-based representations of the involved intermolecular interactions and applications.

Deals with the testing and application of computational methods addressing confined molecular motion in large structures including molecular cages, surfaces, and interfaces, combined with experimental characterizations.

Deals with helium nanodroplets are unique nano-cryo reactors for aggregating, cooling, and probing, as well as surface deposition of various materials ranging from single atoms up to exotic nanostructures.

Is focused on small metal and metal oxide nanoparticles in the size regime below 10 nm, where quantum confinement influences the system functionality. It is the regime of catalysis, photonics, and bio-sensing and thus connects directly with the world of technology specially SMEs.

Focuses in Astrochemistry in a broad sense. Firstly, the methods at our disposal will be presented, i.e., attractive kinetics and spectroscopy experiments in the laboratory, often mimicking at least partly the conditions in the interstellar medium.

Action Contacts

María Pilar de Lara-Castells – Action Chair

Cristina Puzzarini – Action Vice Chair

Juan Carlos Hernández-Garrido – Scientific Grant Holder Representative

Upcoming Events

Molecules confined in helium nanodroplets – new light sources for new materials and new applications

June 16

Cluster Meeting 2023

June 18 - June 21

Hands-on Training ‘Read- My-Proposal’

July 3