The European permafrost monitoring COST Network, named PermaCOST (standing for COordinated and STandardized Monitoring of Permafrost Response to Climate Change), was launched in October 2025. The official kickoff meeting of the Management Committee was hosted by the COST Association in Brussels, Belgium. This Action will last 4 years (2025-2029. The Management Committee of PermaCOST currently consists of nearly 40 members representing 25 countries. In October and November, the newly elected Core Group leading the PermaCOST Action began working together to plan the first activities.
The PermaCOST Action aims to gather a network of permafrost researchers, stakeholders, and practitioners to jointly work towards a coordinated and standardized monitoring of permafrost response to climate change. Join the PermaCOST Action to contribute to the comprehensive assessment of permafrost state and evolution in Europe and the standardisation and implementation of novel permafrost monitoring techniques. A close collaboration with GTN-P is also foreseen. You can find the full proposal and the aims of the PermaCOST Action in the Memorandum of Understanding.
Following COST’s philosophy of openness and transparency, anyone can apply to join PermaCOST at any time during the Action’s lifetime. Currently, PermaCOST has about 130 members from 35 countries. Networking activities funded by PermaCOST will include meetings, research visits grants, conference grants, and training schools.
PermaCOST is structured into 5 Working groups:
- WG1: Identify the key complementary methods to permafrost temperature and ALT for a comprehensive assessment of permafrost state and evolution
- WG2: Compile and homogenize data acquisition standards for the identified methods
- WG3: Compile and homogenize data processing standards for the identified methods
- WG4: Compile a European-wide assessment of permafrost state and evolution based on the identified methods
- WG5: Promote and support the development of new operational monitoring networks.
PermaCOST WG1 kick-off meeting took place online on December 9th 2025 and gathered 50 members of the network. The draft of the planned Community Survey on permafrost research in Europe was extensively discussed.
The next planned events and activities are:
- A Community Survey to assess the permafrost research activities will be launched around mid-January 2026
- PermaCOST first hybrid General Meeting in Potsdam (19-20 January 2026) hosted by AWI, Potsdam, Germany.
You can find more info on PermaCOST and how to join on its COST page: https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA24157. Feel free to reach us out to join these planned activities (permacost@unifr.ch).
Provided by Coline Mollaret
Management Committee members of PermaCOST were hosted by the COST Association in Brussels in early October 2025 to launch the Action