NUI Galway is to be the venue for the 56th British Universities Industrial Relations Association Conference, from 28-30 June. This is the first time that the full conference programme has been held outside the UK and many of the world's most eminent industrial relations and human resource management scholars, trade unionists and policy makers from around the world are to convene on Galway city.

BUIRA is being hosted by the Department of Management in the Cairnes Graduate School of Business & Public Policy at NUI Galway, which is headed by Dr. Tony Royle, who commented, "Not only are we to welcome the BUIRA conference this year, but we are also hosting the annual Countess Markievicz Lecture on 29 June. This is the first time the lecture is being held outside Dublin and we look forward to hearing from Kieran Mulvey, Chair of the Labour Relations Commission."

The conference will also be the focus for two special issues of the international journals: the Industrial Relations Journal and Equal Opportunities International. Guest speakers include Ron Oswald, General Secretary of the Global Union Federation the IUF, Professor Bill Roche from UCD, Helen Russell of the Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin and Professor Charles Woolfson Marie Curie Professor University of Latvia and University of Glasgow.

NUI Galway's President, Dr. Iognáid Ó Muircheartaigh, will be giving a welcome speech at the opening of the conference on the 28 June. More information about the conference can be found at www.buira.org.uk

The conference is supported by the Irish Association of Industrial Relations, People Management Magazine (UK), CIPD-Ireland, CIPD UK, NUI Galway's Registrar's Office and Departmental MBS programme, CISC and Bord Fáilte.

Notes to editors BUIRA started in 1950 and now has over 650 members. Its membership encompasses academics and doctoral students working in such fields as industrial relations, labour law, labour economics, human resource (or personnel) management, industrial sociology, occupational psychology, trade union studies and labour history.

BUIRA is affiliated to and active within the International Industrial Relations Association and is also a member of the Academy of Learned Societies in the Social Sciences (ALSISS), which exists to encourage the advancement of social science.

More information about the conference can be found at www.buira.org.