Academia Europaea welcomes this conference on ‘Turkey and Europe: Mobility, Creativity and Trajectories’ as an innovative venture, jointly hosted with the Austrian Academy of Sciences here in Vienna. Most scholars tend to associate primarily with their respective national academies, so it is rare that a jointly sponsored meeting such as this could attract so many participants. As Vice-President of Academia Europaea, I welcome especially Dr Arnold Suppan, Vice-President of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, H.E. Ayse Sezgin, Turkish Ambassador to Austria, Embassy Councillor Dr Güclü Kalafat, speakers from different countries, and all of you who bring insights to these discussions.

Academia Europaea is an international non-governmental association of individual scholars who are experts and leaders in their own subject areas as recognised by their peers. Formally established in 1988, it celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2013. The idea of such an academy was discussed in the 1970s: it was recognised that European scientists tended to meet one another in America rather than in Europe. Hence came the European Science Foundation (ESF) and indeed some of the founder members of ESF were also responsible for keeping the idea of an Academy of Europe alive. The critical spark came from Herbert Curien, then French Minister of Science, who assembled other national ministers of science in Paris 1985 to discuss the possibilities of a body that could express the ideas and opinions of individual scientists from across Europe. The UK undertook this agenda and the founding members met in Cambridge in September 1988. The main aims of Academia Europaea are to promote European scholarship, to encourage inter-disciplinary and international research in all areas of learning, to identify topics of trans-European importance for science and scholarship, to propose appropriate action to ensure that these issues are adequately studied, and, eventually, to make recommendations to national governments and to international agencies concerning matters affecting science, scholarship and academic life in Europe.

The work of the Academia is mainly conducted within Sections and this conference on Turkey and Europe: Mobility, Creativity and Trajectories has been organised by the Social Sciences Section, where I act as Chair. Our Section Committee Liaison Member for Anthropology, Justin Stagl, was mainly responsible for local arrangements and we are co-editors of this special volume of European Review. This meeting is the first of a planned series of conferences on this topic to be held jointly with other Sections of Academia Europaea. A pertinent request on this subject was received from the Council of Europe and all Sections involved with humanities and social sciences were invited to assume initiatives on the theme. Our Social Sciences Section successfully sought the collaboration of the Austrian Academy's Commission for Migration and Integration Research and Vienna seemed to be an ideal location for such discussions. Financial support has been received from the Bank of Sweden's Tercentennary Fund (Riksbankens Jubileumsfond) as part of its sponsorship of a programme entitled ‘Dialogue of Modern Cultures’. We are deeply grateful to all these institutions, to Professor Heinz Fassmann and Dr. Wiebke Sievers for their tireless support, as well as to Professor Lars Walloe, President, and to David Coates, Executive Secretary of Academia Europaea. Special thanks are due to Professor Arnold Suppan, Vice-President of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, who both attended the conference and spoke words of welcome. We also wish to thank Dr Marianne Baumgart, Dr Charlotte Colding Smith and Maria Luzia Enengel for their assistance.

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