D 19-11-09.
Higher Education operates at the heart of the knowledge triangle: education, research and innovation and has a key role in whether Europe reaches or misses the knowledge society target. Higher Education has to get more open to the needs and expectations of society, and in particular to the needs of the world of work.

We need more and better avenues of cooperation between higher education and business. We have to ensure a better flow and exchange of information and knowledge; reinforce better mutual understanding and comprehension, develop trust and confidence between these two worlds.

The University-Business Forum, launched by the Commission, is a very concrete measure to make progress in this area. It provides a platform to the different stakeholders for discussion, for exchange of good practice and for mutual learning.

Via the Forum but also via other EU activities (i.e. LLL Programme; Framework Research Programme) we have identified and collected a number of good practice examples and learnt about problems and barriers which restrict University-Business Cooperation. However these examples of good practice stem from a limited number of countries and higher education institutions; and the information provided relating to barriers and specific problems remains rather general. Therefore it was decided to launch a specific study to get a better and more comprehensive understanding of University-Business Cooperation in Europe.
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