Godelieve van den Brande, policy officer for ICT and Innovations in Learning at the European Commission's Directorate General of Education and Culture will share his visions of future innovations in the areas of learning, education and training (LET), and in doing so discuss the potential for common European progress.

Sophie Weisswange, representing the Directorate General of Education and Culture's efforts regarding quality assurance for VET, will discuss the implications of learning quality for current and future European development in the fields of lifelong learning (LLL) and technology-enhanced learning (TEL). Their input will help serve to establish a framework in which the individual papers and presentations of the Conference can be connected and constructively analysed.

After these opening remarks, Christian M. Stracke, Chair of Technical Committee 353 concerning information and communication technologies for LET at the European Committee for Standardization, ISO Convener, and LINQ Conference Chair, will investigate the possible contradictions and interactions that arise between learning innovations and quality. The head of R&D for the Greek school Ellinogermaniki Agogi Sofoklis Sotiriou will connect to the discussion by conveying his experience concerning learning innovations in schools and science education at his organization.

Thereafter, Sandra Feliciano will elaborate on her experience with learning quality and certification as chair of the Portuguese national technical committee CTA 25 and main coordinator of the Q-Cert-VET project. At the end of the sessions, selected papers concerning learning innovations and quality, competences and skills for lifelong learning, and European projects for lifelong learning will be presented in three parallel sessions.

LINQ 2012, with its motto "Learning Innovations and Quality: How Do They Fit Together?", addresses LLL, TEL, quality standards and certification, human resources development, competences and skills, as well as learning, innovation, and quality-management systems. All experts from LET are invited to join in our dialogue on innovations and quality in LET. Registration for the event is open until 30 September; however seats are limited and are available on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Direct enquiries and registrations can be sent to the LINQ Conference Manager Mrs Tatiana Shamarina-Heidenreich, University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE), Germany, via e-Mail.