The context and purpose of the Conference are relevant to the topics addressed by the call for the three following reasons. First, the conference’s starting point is in line with the Competitiveness Council conclusions concerning Joint Programming, mentioned in the work programme as rationale of the topic “Actions in support of the European Union's initiative on Joint Programming in Research”. Then, the conference aims at analysing success and problems encountered by the first four JPIs that will be in progress at the end of 2010. And last, the scope of the topic is “Exploring, supporting and analyzing the “Framework Conditions” considered necessary for an effective implementation of Joint Programming”. Five workshops focused on these framework conditions will be organised during the Conference.The objectives of the conference are:- to clarify the notion of Joint Programming: despite GPC’s activities and conferences and communications from numerous actors on the topic, joint programming is a recent concept. Misconceptions remain today regarding the concept itself and regarding the role of various actors. Some degree of confusion exists especially between joint programming and other JPIs (ERA-NET, Art. 169, SET Plan);- to make a first evaluation or appraisal over active JPIs to this day;- to make a state of play regarding the implementation of the first initiatives and the way the different instruments have been mobilized (national, regional, and inter-governmental programmes, ERA-NET…) and also regarding the progress on the development of the Framework Conditions;- to contribute to the GPC report: the conclusions of the conference will be used to feed the report that GPC must present to the competitiveness Council in December 2010, and to formulate concrete recommendations for the development of the joint programming approach and to facilitate the implementation of JPI.