  The COoler SYnchrotron COSY-J\"ulich delivers phase-space cooled, polarized
proton and deuteron beams with momenta up to p=3.65 GeV/c. Various experiments
on hadron-induced strangeness production on proton, neutron and nuclear targets
have been carried out. Here we report about recent results on associated
strangeness production in pp -> KYN (Y= Lambda,Sigma) reactions, on K^+
production in pn collisions, and on K K-bar pair production in pp interactions.
We also briefly discuss possible measurements to disentangle the parity of the
recently discovered pentaquark state Theta^+, the spin dependence of the YN
interaction, as well as planned experiments which aim at the determination of
the a_0-f_0 mixing matrix element, a quantity which is believed to be sensitive
to the nature of the light scalar mesons a_0/f_0(980).
