The Commission is expected to adopt its proposal for Horizon 2020 on 30 November 2011 The Danish EU Presidency starts 1 January 2012. Therefore negotiations on Horizon 2020 will begin during the Danish EU Presidency.Two Danish EU Presidency conferences will facilitate involvement of key European stakeholders in key debates on the future research and innovation policy in Europe in particular on Horizon 2020 and the principle of excellence.The Ministerial Conference will offer a platform for key European and global stakeholders to discuss the Commission’s proposal for Horizon 2020 with European ministers. This will help bring about new ideas on key issues related to Horizon 2020 and thereby hopefully help build consensus among key stakeholders and European ministers on key issues.The overall subject for the Ministerial conference is Horizon 2020 and the Commission’s proposal. The more specific topics to be discussed will be chosen based on which topics are most relevant to the European stakeholders present and based on which topics that are most relevant to discuss in the political process of the negotiations.The Ministerial Conference will take place at the conference center Bella Center in Copenhagen close to Copenhagen Airport. Bella Center has all necessary facilities to host this type of conference.The Excellence Conference will promote the value of Excellence in all aspects of European research and innovation policy and provide input to further policy development at national and European level, hereunder Horizon 2020.The main objective of the Excellence Conference is to facilitate a discussion on what excellence is, why excellence is important and how excellence is built, supported and utilized throughout the whole research and innovation chain.The Excellence Conference will be held at Aarhus University, a modern university situated in the town of Aarhus. The university has all facilities to host large international conferences