Blogs

Contributors to the January issue of the PIMA Bulletin No 22 are hard at work on what we hope will be another interesting and informative publication. Here is a preview of the Contents:

The European Comission’s Eurostat conference 'SmartStatistics4SmartCities' was held in Greece on 5-6 October. The aim was to raise awareness about the importance of building sustainable partnerships between official statistics, municipalities, academic institutions, citizens and businesses. Among the invited speakers were PASCAL Associate Ilpo Laitinen and Konstantinos Ampountolas from the UBDC, University of Glagow.

Australia is one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 28% of residents were born in another country and almost 50% have at least one parent born elsewhere. The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), a hybrid-funded Australian public broadcasting radio, online, and television network, has recently developed a Cultural Competence Program (CCP) online training course for individuals and organisations.

We ae delighted to welcome Professor Piyushimita (Vonu) Thakuriah to the PASCAL Board. Vonu is a world-renowned expert on sustainable, socially just transport, and on the use of information, especially big data, to solve urban problems. PASCAL can benefit from Vonu's international experience at the cutting edge of research with immediate practical and policy relevance.

The Programme for the 15^th PASCAL International Conference to be co-organised and hosted by the Gyeonggi Do Provincial Institute for Lifelong Learning (GILL) and the Korean Academic Society for Lifelong Education from 30 August -1 September at Suwon City, Gyeonggi Province, Republic of Korea, now provides further details of its content.