The presentation will address the changing nature of the research missions being developed in Higher Education
Institutions at various levels, from doctoral programme reform to new instruments for research funding at the European and national levels, and new partnerships with regional agencies and businesses. Higher education institutions are working to strengthen and diversify their research strategies (in both fundamental and more applied research) through introducing more strategic management approaches. They are seeking increasingly to enhance their research and innovation capacities by developing further collaboration with external partners, consortia building and clustering in specific research domains, and by professionalising their processes of knowledge transfer. The current policy framework will also be reviewed to explore the degree to which the required synergy is being provided by European, national and regional research and innovation initiatives to support effectively higher education institutions in developing their research missions.