This project, commissioned by the European Commission's DG-RTD and implemented by a consortium led by DLR-PT, develops strategic foresight to support R&I policy across ten EU candidate countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kosovo*, Montenegro, North Macedonia, the Republic of Moldova, Serbia, Türkiye, and Ukraine. 

It explores how research and innovation systems may evolve across these ten EU candidate countries in the Western Balkans and Black Sea region, with the aim of informing EU, national, and regional policy choices under conditions of uncertainty. 

The project combines desk research, a structured STEEPV-based trend framework, expert survey work, scenario development, and country-level policy dialogues to identify the drivers, uncertainties, and strategic choices shaping future R&I trajectories. Its first evidence base mapped 60 trends and drew on 338 expert responses across the ten countries, highlighting a shared pattern of weak implementation capacity, unstable funding, underused EU opportunities, and persistent talent loss.

Building on this, the project develops four cross-regional scenarios and expert co-creation, then translates them into ten country policy memos and a comparative regional analysis. The result is a foresight-driven set of tangible policy recommendations on how enlargement countries can strengthen R&I capacity, improve alignment with the European Research Area and Horizon Europe.

The World Futures Studies Federation offers its standards to institutions interested in achieving accreditation in futures studies. Institutions offering programmes which meet the Federation’s standards will be credentialed as an Accredited Foresight Programme. Accreditation will extend for a period of five (5) years. Review of accreditation will be available every five (5) years to ensure programmes continue to maintain high quality standards of the Federation.


We provide accreditation only to education providers that have been recognized by the relevant department or ministry of education in their country as a tertiary education provider.

How To Apply: https://wfsf.org/accreditation-services/ 

The study represents the Commission’s commitment, outlined in its 2023 Communication on the functioning of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), to address emerging challenges in the sector. It aligns with the Commission's definition of foresight as “the discipline of exploring, anticipating, and shaping the future to inform today’s decision-making.” This participatory study places fishers at its core, integrating their perspectives into the development of future scenarios and fisher profiles to inform strategic policymaking for a sustainable, competitive and resilient EU fishing sector, as part of the wider blue economy. It does not present policy proposals, which was never the intention, rather it serves to stimulate further the important debate on securing and giving a perspective on the future of EU fishers.

European Commission: European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency, F&S, IPSOS, POSEIDON, Tetra Tech, Davies, M., Macfadyen, G., Brugere, C., Chiarelli, N., Dale, F.Caillart, B., Foresight study on fishers of the future – Final report , Publications Office of the European Union, 2024;