====== About ======
**COSTNET: the European Cooperation for Statistics of Network Data Science.**

A major challenge in many modern economic, epidemiological, ecological and biological questions is to understand the randomness in the network structure of the entities they study: for example, the SARS epidemic showed how preventing epidemics relies on a keen understanding of random interactions in social networks, the financial crises in 2008 arose from structural changes in the financial lending network induced by the subprime mortgage collapse, whereas progress in curing complex diseases is aided by a robust data-driven network approach to biology.

This Action aims to facilitate interactions and collaborations between diverse groups of statistical network modellers, establishing a large and vibrant interconnected and inclusive community of network scientists. The aim of this interdisciplinary Action is two-fold. On the scientific level, the aim is to critically assess commonalities and opportunities for cross-fertilization of statistical network models in various applications, with a particular attention to scalability in the face of Big Data. On a meta-level, the aim is to create a mainly online community which includes researchers from across the whole of Europe and at every stage in their scientific career and to facilitate contact with stakeholders.
For more information concerning technical aspects of this Action please consult:
  * {{pub:doc:ca15109-mou.pdf|Memorandum of Understanding}}
Information on COST Actions in general and what they offer can be found at the COST website:
  * [[http://www.cost.eu/about_cost/how_does_cost_work|How does COST work?]]