PASCAL offers an innovative approach to accessing state-of-the-art international knowledge and expertise on place management, social capital and learning cities and regions, and bringing this knowledge to bear on policy and practice issues faced by regional authorities.

We are focussed on creating new knowledge, sharing and exchanging current knowledge and best practice wisdom, consolidating, interpreting and applying state-of-the art knowledge in policy and practice development and creating and facilitating opportunities for knowledge sharing and mutual learning.

Our range of activities and services all contribute in different ways to meeting these ends for the mutual benefit of policy, practice and research communities alike. PASCAL offers a rapid response to meeting information needs in a form and in a manner tailored to the needs of individual members and clients, drawing on the expertise and experience of a large number of accredited experts spread across the world The immediate availability of this international resource provides a unique basis for the tasks which PASCAL undertakes.

An innovative collaborative approach

The whole essence of PASCAL is on sharing knowledge, experience and mutual learning. We are emphatically not just another consultancy firm. Whilst we can undertake specific 'one-off' tasks, our intention is to build a collaborative dialogue with our member organisations. We appoint an adviser for each of our members, who co-ordinates our work with a link person within the member organisation to determine how best to identify and respond to members' information needs, and to spot opportunities for members to showcase their work to the benefit of others.

Activities

Our activities range from international research and development projects, to targeted local inputs to members' policy and practice development. A full range of the work we have undertaken will be found on other pages on the site.

In summary PASCAL provides:

• Opportunities to participate in major international research and development projects;
• The contribution of international expertise to support local research and development;
• 'Bespoke' projects to meet local needs;
• Access to a library of materials on relevant topics and policy and practice issues;
• News and updates on important events;
• Information about PASCAL members activities;
• Policy bulletins on current debates;
• Access to a range of specific tools and services to benchmark and analyse local provision and policy;
• Opportunities to showcase local initiatives and market expertise.

Specific skills

We can of course undertake a whole range of specific tasks using the expertise of our Associates. Associates can provide:

• Research monitoring and evaluation;
• Training programmes;
• Policy analysis and Futures Planning;
• Expertise in developing community engagement;
• Analysis of governance arrangements and community and regional development stategies;
• Between them, Associates are proficient in a large number of languages.

Working together for better policy and practice

PASCAL International is all about bringing international knowledge and experience to bear on local issues in a way most appropriate to our members. We work alongside our members, and look forward to building long-term working relationships to establish genuine evidence-informed policy and practice development.

Join us To discuss ways in which the PASCAL Observatory can work with you, please contact your nearest PASCAL regional office or Alan Foster, the Executive Officer..