ACA recently organised the seminar “The Role of the National Agencies in the New Generation of EU Programmes”. It was hosted by Nuffic in The Hague on 18 November and was attended by senior staff from ACA members and from National Agencies outside the ACA network. The seminar provided a forum for the identification of important issues and for the sharing of knowledge. Present approaches as well as ideas for future models were presented and discussed, touching topics like:

• Status and concept of National Agencies, establishing procedures, non-governmental status
• One integrated agency or different agencies for each of the programme pillars
• Integrated or separate management of EU programmes and other scholarship programmes, higher education marketing, etc.
• Competencies of and cooperation between National Agencies, National Authorities, European Commission and future Executive Agency

The ACA Secretariat received very positive feedback from the participants, who considered the seminar a highly useful and inspiring experience. We would like to thank Nuffic for what was, in the words of a participant, a “perfect organisation of the seminar”.