These issues have often been found to provide the topic of informal talks during breaks at international conferences, workshops, meetings etc. They are of high interest to many actors in the education sector, but they can hardly be dealt with systematically on such occasison. The ERDI expert seminar aimed to provide a forum for transnational exchange of experience and for a more in-depth discussion of these issues.

Case studies from different countries, presented from experienced actors in the field, provided input for further debate. The case studies focused on the following aspects:

1. Responsibilities and competences of your institute at national and/or regional level (given the federal or centralistic structure respectively of the country): What is the range and scope of competences and where are the limits? Which problems (including fundraising) do arise from this situation and how does your institute deal with them?

2. Legal status of your institute - dependency/indepence from the state: How much room for manouver are you allowed for your work, in terms of content as well as budget issues?

3. Profiling: what are the current lines of /plans for development for your institute? What concrete action is taken to implement these?

4. Between research and practice: What is your relationship to these two fields and where is your institute situated between them? How do you serve the needs of both? What conflicts arise from this and how do you deal with them?

Conference Organisation: INVALSI-Istituto Nazionale per la Valutazione del Sistema dell'Istruzione