Knowledge exchange for cities and departments

Summary form only given. The Dutch Urban Expert Centre (UEC) is a cooperative effort of 25 cities and 9 departments. This knowledge center was created to address the need for an integrated approach to urban policy, including social, physical and economic aspects. The objective is to offer insight in the form of specific, usable knowledge and to promote knowledge exchange and best practices. The Dutch UEC has five main product groups: publications, meetings and conferences, Web site, R&D programs and a help desk. An example of a knowledge program is social quality matters (SQM). Within this program, five themes are addressed, of which one is safety. An example of a safety program is the virtual bobby project, which provides e-mail contact with local police. Other SQM projects provide data to the public regarding security issues in neighborhoods, train policy-makers, managers and outside professionals, and actively involve citizens in community building and neighborhood communication. The Dutch UEC's English-language Web site is www.dutchuec.nl.