PURE: The PASCAL Universities' Regional Engagement Project
What is PURE?
PURE stands for PASCAL Universities Regional Engagement. The research project was launched in October 2008 and is run by PASCAL; an international observatory that aims to promote the exchange of best practice, ideas and policies about place management, social capital and learning regions.
Professor Mike Osborne is PASCAL’s co-director: ‘PASCAL responds to the growing international demand from cities, regional governments and other clients for expertise which can be quickly mobilised to support the development and assessment of initiatives relating to place and enhance social cohesion and inclusion, the role of learning in innovation, and development and governance.
PASCAL aims to connect the growing communities of practitioners and scholars in its fields of interest across the world in an innovative policy, practice and research alliance.’ With a node based in RMIT University in Melbourne, one in the University of Northern Illinois and one in the University of Glasgow, PASCAL maintains some 60 accredited experts around the world.
These experts help to:
- examine the links between people and organisations in regions, and the ways in which they can be fermented
- collect and analyse data within regions
- find examples of best practice in the development of learning cities and regions.