"The Belgian Presidency Conference related to “Conditions for achieving excellence in universitiesand other research organisations” will be organised in Brussels, Belgium on 14th and 15th October 2010.The conference will focus on universities and research institutes and the way they can adaptthemselves in order to contribute to the completion of the ERA. The knowledge landscapewhere universities and research institutes are working is changing very fast, with increasedspecialisation, new information technologies, distance learning, new learners, new providesand global competition for the best students and researchers. Public authorities anduniversities are called to respond to these various challenges by modernising their ways ofworking and by introducing far-reaching new types of cooperation (regional, national andcross-border) involving different categories of higher education institutions, researchorganisation and enterprises. The conference will study the link between good institutionalgovernance, competition and research performance; common principles for financialmanagement and responsible external research funding and innovation research training (theexample of research schools). In the context of the EU 2020 strategy and the innovation union, attention will also be given to Research and industry partnerships"