This article has been prepared for Pascal by Richard Yelland, Head of IMHE at OECD. The project that it describes explored in very practical ways questions at the heart of Pascal’s mission: how can academic knowledge and the work of universities more generally be put to practical use in supporting learning city-regions, enhancing social capital, etc; and what modes of collaboration actually work in which settings.

The article explains the launch of the project findings in the form of a monograph at Valencia in September. Immediately after this OECD Conference, the annual Pascal conference at Pecs in Hungary will offer an opportunity for OECD project participants to review what has happened since the project, and consider what further work they would like to undertake together. Within the Pecs conference there will be Round Table session on the project which will enable a wider group to discuss further work in this area, building on the results of the OECD project.