Mike Osborne's blog

The latest publication of the UK Government Office for Science's Foresight Group led by Sir Alan Wilson on the Future of Cities has just been published. The Business of Cities authored by Emily Moir and Greg Clark looks at the way in which the relationship between cities and business is evolving.

I was pleased to be amongst those invited to a discussion on the Future of Cities in Glasgow on Friday 14 March, run by the Government Office for Science, and chaired by the Government Chief Scientific Adviser, Sir Mark Walport, and Sir Alan Wilson, Professor of Urban and Regional Systems at University College London and Chair of the Future of Cities Lead Expert Group.

The lastest workshop of the U21 RUR network on the topic of Research Universities and their Learning Cities was held at Hong Kong University on 21 November 2013, and hosted by Professor Mark Bray. Delegates attended from the University of Glasgow, Hong Kong University and UBC as well as collaborating universities and cities who are not part of U21. These included the University of Catania, the cities of Cork and Helsinki, Simon Fraser University and the University of Tampere. 

At this point some practical suggestions that emerged from discussion include the following:

Subscribers may be interested in following the progression of an item that we recently produced on the PIAAC results from the UK:

Organisations in the UK benefit by generating £90 million per year through the UK's membership of UNESCO. These finances, which include investment, tourism revenue and project grants, have contributed to regeneration, community development and conservation across the UK.

Given our excellent relationship in Pascal with UNESCO's Institute for Lifelong Learning, subscribers will be interested in this report.