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Universities and industry, up to now relatively separate and distinct institutional spheres, are assuming tasks that were formerly largely the province of the other. The role of government in relation to these two spheres is changing in apparently contradictory directions. Governments are offering incentives, on the one hand, and pressing academic institutions, on the other, to go beyond performing the traditional functions of cultural memory, education and research, and make a more direct contribution to" wealth creation"(HMSO 1993). Governments are also shifting their relationships to economic institutions, becoming both more and less involved. In some countries with a laissez faire capitalist tradition such as the US government is playing a greater role in innovation in the civilian economy (Etzkowitz 1994a) while in former socialist societies government has withdrawn from its previous position of total control of science and technology policy; adopting a stance more in accord with laissez faire principles. Multi-national institutions such as the European Union, the World Bank and the UN are also moving to embrace concepts of knowledge based economic development that bring the knowledge, productive and regulatory spheres of society into new configurations. In this conference, we wish to study the role of the sciences in this changing environment with a focus on the university's position in the newly emerging knowledge infrastructure.