The study aims at emphasizing the role of the universities as main drivers for knowledge, creativity and innovation. The second major goal consists in designing a framework for bridging the gap between academic area, the governance and the market. The article focuses also on the role of the academic area in the development of the learning and creative society, contributing to the design of new knowledge and technology embedded products and services, and new advanced organizational processes. This paper is based on a previous research project ("Knowledge management architecture in environmental, social and economic areas, designed to support the sustainable regional development strategy'', financed under the National Research Programme 2007-2013, code: 896, contract 383/2007), and especially on the quantitative and qualitative results related to the role of the education in general and of the universities in particular for the sustainable development. The study took into consideration the specific Romanian situation, compared with the other European countries. The analysis demonstrated the major contribution of the education, especially the higher education, in achieving Lisbon indicators and also in ameliorating the human development. The paper is based on a desk research, involving a quantitative analysis (statistical data for the Romania and other European countries) and also a qualitative study. The concrete results consist in an improved trinomial model for a better communication among the main actors of the sustainable development: research and education entities, public administration and governance entities and market and NGOs entities. The knowledge transfer from the academic area to the market and governance area stand also for an important outcome of the research. The results of this research have a direct impact on the sustainable development and on the competitiveness. A major contribution could be the impact for the governance in order to create a knowledge-based decisional system. Beside the benefits in quantitative terms, the contribution of the universities is very important for the personal development, creating new competences in order to cope with technological changes and a pro-active attitude for continuous learning.
