PASCAL International was founded in 2002, as one outcome of an OECD Conference in held in Melbourne on Learning Regions. PASCAL has grown rapidly to become the global organisation it is today.

Some Key Milestones

2002 Established first office in Melbourne at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University.

2004 Attracts start-up funding from founding funders the State of Victoria, Australia, the Scottish Executive and Kent County Council, England.

2005 Established second office at the University of Stirling focussed on developments in Europe. Launch of Hot Topics series of discussion papers.

2007 Becomes self-funding organisation from membership fees and research grants.

2008 European regional office moves to the University of Glasgow. Established third regional office in Northern Illinois University. Launch of first major international research and development project, the PASCAL Universities Regional Engagement project (PURE), now working with 19 regions around the world.

2009 Launch of PASCAL International Exchange programme (PIE), and, with funding from the European Union, leads EUROlocal project and is a participant in several other research programmes.

2010 Launch of PASCAL Universities for a Modern Renaisance programme (PUMR)

PASCAL continues to maintain close links with OECD and the EU, and has provided speakers at numerous international conferences. We have strong network links with other associations of universities and city regions around the world.

Strong foundations

Grounded in these strong foundations, PASCAL continues to grow and develop its activities. We have held successful international conferences each year, each devoted to a key aspect of the PASCAL remit. Conferences were organised in Stirling (UK) in 2005, Melbourne (Australia) in 2006, Pecs (Hungary) in 2007, Limerick (Ireland) in 2008, Vancouver (Canada) in 2009 and Ostersund (Sweden) in 2010. Papers presented at these events are published in a growing series of books, and further volumes are in preparation.

International research and development

PASCAL has launched several ground-breaking international research and development projects, using innovative methodologies, and designed to secure practical outcomes at regional level. Details of all of these projects are available on other pages.

Local research and development

PASCAL International has undertaken a variety of tasks for regional authorities including state of the art reviews, providing expertise to local policy reviews, facilitating policy ‘think tanks’ and undertaking local research projects. Again, details are available on other pages.

Innovation

We continue to build our relationships and dialogue between the policy and research communities in innovative ways. There is growing evidence that participation in PASCAL projects has facilitated the development of productive work between policy stakeholders which would probably not have happened otherwise, and cities and regions as widespread as Melbourne, Glasgow, Helsinki, Victoria BC and Antwerp are finding that they have common interests and much to learn from each other.

PASCAL will be looking to build on these successes in coming years. Why not join in?