On Monday 9 January 2012, ENCATC, the European network on cultural management and cultural policy education, has officially launched the first issue of the ENCATC Online Journal of Cultural Management and Policy. The objective of the ENCATC Journal of Cultural Management and Policy is to stimulate the debate on the topics of cultural management and cultural policy among scholars, educators, policy makers and cultural managers. The Journal is based on a multidisciplinary perspective and aims to connect theory and practice in the realm of the cultural sector. The submitted papers regard different fields: culture and creativity, cultural management, cultural policies, marketing, local development, entrepreneurship, and education applied to the cultural sector. This new publication also aims to be a platform for multidisciplinary debate and new perspectives among researchers. Composed of 7 articles selected by an international Advisory Board made up of 19 well established researchers and experts from 10 countries this online Journal responds to the increasing need to align education in cultural management and cultural policy with research being conducted in the field. It will certainly contribute to improving the knowledge and the capabilities for crafting advanced cultural policies and cultural management systems at the European level and beyond. With this new publication ENCATC proves once more his strong capacity in pursuing, publishing, presenting, and disseminating research in cultural management and cultural policy to strengthen the understanding of cultural management and cultural policy issues. In line with this objective, ENCATC’s research activities already include over the past years the organisation of the Forum for young researchers; the organisation of the CPRA competition, the Online researchers’ Forum all in partnership with the European Cultural Foundation. To continue pursuing this objective and creating even stronger sinergie between education and research, ENCATC also organises since 2010 an annual Research Session where research papers are submitted by members and non members. The next ENCATC Research Session will be organised alongside the ENCATC Annual Conference to be held in London next 12-14 September 2012. The ENCATC journal is intended to be a yearly publication. However, depending on the topic an extra issue could be considered. From 2012 onwards, the Journal will be published to coincide with the ENCATC Annual Conference. Our auspice is that this Journal will contribute to improving the knowledge and the capabilities for crafting advanced cultural policies and cultural management systems at the European level and beyond. Finally, we would like to remark that the ENCATC journal is a free online publication. It will be available for online consultation and a printable version is available on the ENCATC website. For more information about this journal and submission guidelines, please consult www.journal.encatc.org or contact Elizabeth Darley, ENCATC Research Policy Officer, e.darley@encatc.org Download the first ENCATC Online Journal of Cultural Management and Policy on the ENCATC website: www.journal.encatc.org.