This project being led by the University of Florence and various members of the European Association of Regional and Local Authorities for Lifelong Learning, including Pascal member, Jamtland County Council. The project is funded under the EC's LLL programme and has the core objective of improving the quality and effectiveness of Regional/Local LLL policies through trans-regional cooperation at European level allowing innovative policy practices to be learnt and transferred within different systems.

The purpose of this paper is to explore some of the discourses and trends in Higher Education Institutions expressed by such concepts such as engaged scholarship (Boyer, 2006), community-based research (Strand et al, 2003), community-university research partnerships (Hall, 2009, Hart et al 2007), community-university engagement (Watson, 2006), civic engagement (University of Victoria strategic plan), or knowledge mobilization and knowledge impact (Levesque, 2008)?  What are the driving forces behind or within these trends?