COST Action A21: General presentation.

Source: (2004) Papers presented at the Third Conference of the European Forum for Victim-Offender Mediation and Restorative Justice, ‘Restorative Justice in Europe: Where are we heading?’, Budapest, Hungary, 14-16 October. Downloaded 22 September 2005.

COST stands for ‘European Co-operation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research’. COST Actions are
concerted actions (networks) of nationally funded research and development projects. Actions within COST are
co-funded by the European Union and supported by the European Science Foundation. COST Action A21 on
‘Restorative Justice Developments in Europe’ concerns a European network of researchers from 20 countries,
which was started late 2002 and which will run until the end of 2006. COST Actions are open to member states
of COST (34 European countries + Israel), but also institutions from non-COST countries can participate to
some degree. More recently, still other opportunities to attend meetings have been created for Balkan countries,
European NIS countries (New Independent States) and Mediterranean countries (from North-Africa and the
Middle East).
The main objective of Action A21 is to enhance and to deepen knowledge on theoretical and practical aspects
of restorative justice in Europe, with a view to supporting implementation strategies in a scientifically sound
way.
In order to reach this general objective, a network of researchers has been created to:
1) exchange and discuss research needs, methods and results;
2) co-ordinate research projects in the respective countries as far as possible and desirable;
3) stimulate or support further (common) research projects. (excerpt)