Success of mobile radio comms. in COST

Have you ever wondered why we (the COST mobile radio communications community, currently, IRACON) are so successful?  What I mean is that, if you look into the many communities that have been active in the ICT (Information and Communications Technologies) area in COST, we’re the only one that has been successful in proposing, and having approved, a series of continued Actions in this area for more than 30 years (since 1984).  Since COST 207 started in 1984, there were subsequently 231, 259, 273, 2100, IC1004, and now CA15104, I dare to say I know the answer.

I’ve been participating in this series of Actions since 231, so I’ve witnessing the changes along the years.  We’ve kept always a very open ambience (in which matters are always discussed) and bureaucracy to a minimum (obviously, without breaking the rules).  We’ve managed to have in the proposing teams, and in the core management ones, a good balance in between bringing new colleagues and ideas to the community, and taking advantage of the knowledge and wisdom of the senior colleagues.  We’ve been capable of mixing the interests of the academic and industry communities, around the common goals, without enforcing the views of one over the other.  Along the years, we’ve established relationships of trust in between ourselves, enabling the exchange of ideas and information in a way that doesn’t have too many similar cases in the research community.

Anyway, there’s always room for improvement.  Any ideas on what we can change or do best?

Luis M. Correia