The 2010 European University-Business Forum was held on 4-5 May in Brussels where potential fruitful co-operation of the two sectors was discussed. High level representatives from higher education, business and politics aimed to explore the new ways of working together. They investigated the prospective synergies boosting regional development, innovation and the quality of education contributing to the success of the European Union’s Europe 2020 Strategy.

Since 2008 the European University-Business Forum has taken place annually, focusing on a wide range of topics. The 2010 theme covered 'University-Business Cooperation for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth’, 'Cooperation with SMEs and Regional Development’,  'University-Business Cooperation to stimulate and develop innovation’ as well as the theme of 'Quality of Education amd Innovation’. Director General of DG Education and Culture, Mr Jan Truszczynski was chairman of the official opening session while speeches were offered by Ms. Androulla Vassiliou Commisioner responsible for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, Mr José Manuel Martinez Sierra, Director General at the Spanish Ministry for Education and Ms Doris Pack, President of the Culture and Education Committee of the European Parliament. The Forum mustered up excellent key note speakers, presenters and participants.

Bringing together Academia and Business is a challenging but definitely beneficial endeavour. It is key to provide opportunities for high quality dialogue between the former to fields in partnership with politics in order to harmonise the supply of higher education institutions with the demand of the labour market making Europe more competititve.

European Commission

European Commission