Limerick has become the second Irish city to participate in PIE, joining Cork. Both Limerick and Cork are notable as active Cities of Learning which conduct successful Lifelong Learning Festivals as one of the ways of promoting lifelong learning throughout the city. The Limerick Festival is now in its third year. Limerick has been innovative in responding to disadvantage identified in the Fitzgerald Report on Social Exclusion in Limerick (2006) with an active City of Learning Steering Group complementing measures such as the establishment of two regeneration agencies.

Seoul has become the second Korean city to participate in the PIE exchanges. Korea, with China, has been one of the leaders in the rapid expansion of learning cities in East Asia in the last decade so that the addition of Seoul to the PIE exchanges will add much value in demonstrating the features that have driven learning city development in Korea.

PASCAL welcomes Gwang Myeong to the PIE exchanges. There has been substantial learning city development in Korea, aided by a strong government interest in this. Gwang Myeong as the first Korean city in PIE is particularly welcome.  It was also the first city chosen as a Korean learning city in 2001 so that its experience has influenced Korean learning city development. 

This brainstorm in the CR&DALL seminar series at the University of Glasgow was held in collaboration with the Adam Smith Research Foundation on 26 March 2013.  Peter Kearns led the session with Dr Roberta Piazza and Professor Norman Longworth as respondents.

2013 will be a big year for international and local development of directions for learning city. These events include the launch of the UNESCO Global Learning City Network in Beijing in November or December 2013, and the 11th PASCAL International Observatory conference Cities Learning Together in Hong Kong on 18-20 November, focussed on the following theme:

Local Communities in the Sustainable and Healthy Learning City