The fifth European Conference on Research Infrastructure (ECRI2008) will take place in Versailles on December 9-10, 2008, under the French European Council Presidency. In line with the previous successful events in Strasbourg (2000), Trieste (2003), Nottingham (2005) and Hamburg (2007), the overall objectives of the conference will be: 1) to explore means of structuring and strengthening the European Research Area 2) to increase the efficiency of creating new facilities, 3) to intensify the exchange of views between decision-makers at international level. In general, after the intensive and important discussion of RI in various scientific fields at the Fourth European Conference on Research Infrastructures in Hamburg, the Versailles Conference will be focussed on the impacts of Research Infrastructures : - on the ERA itself - on the economical challenges in conjunction with the Lisbon objectives. - on the society concerns such as environment or expertise, - on the human resources and education, Contacts with ESFRI and the Czech and Slovenian Presidencies will be established during the preparation phase to ensure their participation in the preparation and performance of the conference. On the Thursday 11th of December, a visiting program to Research Infrastructures of interest in South Ile-de-France (Saclay-Orsay-Palaiseau) will be offered to the conference delegates.