Abstract. Current grid-aware applications are implemented on top of low-level libraries by developers who are experts on grid middleware architecture. This approach can hardly support the additional complexity of QoS control in real applications. We discuss a novel approach used in the ASSIST programming environment to implement/guarantee user provided QoS contracts in a transparent and effective way. Our approach is based on the implementation of automatic run-time reconfiguration of ASSIST application executions triggered by mismatch between the user provided QoS contract and the actual performance values achieved.