DISCUSS is a project funded within the EC's LLP KA4 and is led by Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich with CRADALL and PASCAL at the University of Glasgow as partners along with Praxis und Wissenschaft GmbH (Germany), NEXUS Europe (Ireland), IDEC SA (Greece), MENON (Belgium), Observatory for Lifelong Learning (Romania), Information Systems Management Institute (Latvia)

EU member states over the past decades have promoted structural change in order to make their educational systems more flexible. More recently, national governments have started to decentralise the design and provision of adult education from the higher levels to local or regional governments, and to stimulate the building of local networks for lifelong learning. It is supposed that those networks are in a better position to react rapidly to changes and match learning needs with demands. Moreover, stakeholders on the micro-level are expected to bring learning closer to home but also closer to the situations in which it is applied (work, family, care, hobbies etc.). Learning cities and regions are supposed to take a key role towards the building of local capacities for lifelong learning. Consequently, the number of European cities and regions which coin themselves “learning ones” over the past years has constantly grown. However, there are significant pitfalls and constraints, which not only hinder the local networks to unlock their full potential, but significantly narrow down their effects and wider impact on society.

DISCUSS brings together stakeholders, experts and practitioners in lifelong learning in order to jointly find answers and identify solutions to the most urging issues and to improve the problem solving capacities of local networks for lifelong learning. However, it also takes the debate further and, in collaboration with local stakeholders will develop a roadmap towards the European Learning City | Region of tomorrow. DISCUSS will deliver analysis, good practice, future scenarios, a reader, policy recommendations, describing how to capitalize on the results and effectively transfer them into the practice of Learning Cities | Regions. Last but not least, DISCUSS aims to build long-term strategic partnerships, through permanent exchange mechanisms, such as exchange and mobility programs and the use of social web technologies for shared campaigns.