The year 2024 was exceptional.  PASCAL has grown with the adhesion of two new centres.  In New Brunswick, New Jersey USA, Prof. Radha Jagannathan leads a centre at Rutgers University, a key institution in the greater New York metropolitan region.  This centre promises to improve our understanding of youth education (STEM) and employment issues, with a focus on the design and planning of infrastructure, to strengthen connections between universities and the public sector.  Catherine Lido, Glasgow Centre Director, travelled to New Jersey to attend the launch of the Rutgers Centre.  

On the opposite side of the world, in greater Manila, Prof. Mario Delos Reyes leads a centre at the University of the Philippines and looks forward to collaborating with other centres on neighbourhood studies and peacebuilding.  Lifelong learning remains a thread, tying centres and the themes of the learning city networks so capably led by Rob Mark.

The internationalisation agendas of these universities work in our favour, facilitating and strengthening links between Rutgers and Glasgow, and RMIT, Johannesburg and Glasgow. I am confident that these centres, added to our centres in Johannesburg, with a focus on entrepreneurship and local economic development ecosystems, Glasgow and its leadership in learning city development, and Melbourne through its focus on sustainable development goals, will have a dynamic effect on all our activities.  

Further information on PASCAL work in 2024 is found in the attached document featured below.