Innovations in Civic Participation (ICP) is launching a two-year Faculty and Staff Professional Development (FSPD) Program for the Talloires Network, an international association of civically engaged universities housed at Tufts University. This new initiative, funded by the Pearson Foundation, aims to enhance capacity for member universities to build institutional frameworks focused on civic engagement.

On September 23, 2010, a group of international networks (known as the Big Tent group[i]) working on the community-university research and Engagement issues released the first Global Communiqué on the “Enhancement of North-South Cooperation in Community University Engagement”.  On October 8, 2011, the Big Tent Group released the second global dialogue communiqué on “A Scenario for Community-University Engagement in 2030”.   In May of 2012 the Big Tent Group released a global communiqué on Sustainability, Knowledge and Democracy.  The Big Tent Group will release a 4^th Global Communique during the Barcelona International Conference on Knowledge, Transformation and Social Responsibility being organised by the Global University Network for Innovation May 12-15, 2013. As with the earlier communiqués, this statement will be open source and will be owned by all who participate with the rights to re-distribute and share within all networks.