In the Pre-conference meeting each of the Baltic countries shortly presented the recent developments of the National Academies, cooperation of the Academies in the Baltic region and the main future challenges. 

The Conference was opened by Professor Kirsi Tirri, the President of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters; Professor of education and Vice-Dean in Charge of Research, Faculty of educational Sciences, University of Helsinki. The conference discussed present and future of teacher education in the Baltic countries, covering multiple perspectives of teacher education. The Conference was organized in three sessions: Research in Teacher Education, Innovative Practices in Teacher Education and Policy Issues in Teacher Education. Latvian Academy of Sciences was represented by Academician Ojārs Spārītis, the President of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, Academician Dace Markus, Rector, Liepāja University, Academician Ina Druviete, Vice Rector, University of Latvia and Ilze Trapenciere, Head of International dept., Latvian Academy of Sciences.

Conference offered a forum for science policy discussion on teacher education and training. Participants have discussed issues related to changing status and potential lack of teachers, decreasing status of teaching profession, social differentiation of the society and it's impact on the level of knowledge and education (Prof.J.E.Gustafsson, University of Gothenburg, Sweden). Professor Pertti Kansanen had discussed the major issues concerning the role of research in teaching profession, innovative practices and educational policies. The keynote speakers Professor Vincentas Lamanauskas (Faculty of Educational Sciences and Social Welfare, Šiauliai University), professor Eva Eisenschmidt (Tallinn University School of Educational Sciences), Jari Lavonen (Helsinki University) emphasized very important aspects of teacher education in the Baltic countries. It was discussed how does a student teacher and teacher beginner become a reflective practitioner and what steps should be made to reach that.

Several projects were presented on teacher training perspectives in Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Sweden. The project Next-Lab (University of Turku) invited partners from Latvia to participate. The presentations of the conference are available at the Conference website.

It was decided that the next - XVI Baltic Conference on Intellectual Cooperation will take place in Lithuania in 2019.