Brussels, 14/12/2005 (Agence Europe) - At the most recent meeting (held in Reading, England, on 23 in 24 November) of its Committee of Senior Officials, which is chaired by the Italian professor Francesco Fedi, COST (European Cooperation in the Field of Scientific and Technical Research) took a revolutionary decision, after 30 years of existence, abandoning the rule of consensus for decisions taken by majority of the three quarters of the Member States which it comprises. In the future, the activities of this body, the main job of which is to support networking and cooperation between scientists, will be able to be divided up into nine areas: biomedicines and molecular bioscience; -food and agriculture; -forests, and forestry products and services; -matter, physics and Nano science; chemistry and molecular sciences and technologies; -science of the Earth system and environmental management; -information and telecommunication technologies; -transport and urbanisation; -individuals, society, culture and health. Secretariat services for COST are carried out by the European Science Foundation, on the basis of a subsidy under the sixth framework programme for research, which is due to be renewed in the forthcoming Community framework programme (2007-2013). The next meeting of the Committee of Senior Officials is due to take place on 29 and 30 March 2006.