This policy brief synthesises the outcomes of all ten thematic foresight pilot workshops of the Eye of Europe project (2024–2026), which engaged more than 400 policymakers, researchers, entrepreneurs, citizens and foresight practitioners in Berlin, Bucharest, Madrid, Paris, Prague and Thessaloniki. Building on R&I Policy Brief No. 1, it draws a cross-cutting narrative from the full series. Asked how they perceived the future, participants most often described it as a roller coaster. The brief argues that the underlying problem is not speed as such but a loss of control over direction, and it calls for stepping off the roller coaster through collective transformation towards regenerative futures.

The brief identifies four focal areas for policy action: society, from individual wellness to collective wellbeing; fashion, from ultra-fast fashion to regenerative and immaterial value and identity; food, from efficiency and optimisation to regeneration and resilience; and governance, from reactive firefighting to anticipatory governance. For each area, it traces the shift from accelerated to regenerative paradigms, presents alternative strategies that emerged from the workshops, and sets out R&I policy implications at EU, Member State and regional levels.

Four cross-cutting implications follow for how Europe organises research and innovation: 

• rewarding systemic and interdisciplinary research; 
• treating citizen and stakeholder knowledge as a research input in its own right; 
• nurturing imagination and transformative ambition; 
• and recognising foresight as a European public good, a permanent capacity of ERA governance rather than a project-by-project activity. 

Investment should extend beyond technology to social, institutional and governance innovation, and be aligned vertically across EU, national and regional levels as well as horizontally across policy domains.

IMS2020 was an FP7 project funded by the NMP division of the European Commission within the Intelligent Manufacturing Systems (IMS) framework. It was conducted by an international consortium of 15 core partners and a large group of supporting members from Europe, Japan, Korea, Switzerland and the USA. The main objective was the creation of five research roadmaps towards IMS by 2020 and beyond, in the key areas of sustainable manufacturing, products and services; energy-efficient manufacturing; key technologies; standardisation; and innovation, competence development and education.

JRC-IPTS devised and coordinated the scenario work. Four scenario snapshots for 2025 were built on four impact dimensions, and a joint vision drew on the scenario features that partners rated desirable and at least somewhat likely. Research topics were refined through an open wiki and prioritised in an online survey with 359 participants, and the roadmaps set out research topics and supporting actions for international cooperation.

International foresight exercises are characterised by geographical dispersion, organisational and cultural differences, and the diversity arising from a large number of participants with different expectations and needs. Building on the experience of designing and managing the Intelligent Manufacturing Systems (IMS) 2020 project, this article develops four principles for the design and management of global foresight exercises.

The first principle, understanding interconnected innovation systems, ensures that participants position the foresight exercise and their own activities in a global context. The second, responsiveness towards diverse languages and cultures, strengthens commitment and encourages learning and creative problem solving. The third, capacity to reconfigure international networks, takes advantage of existing organisational structures and facilitates the timely and efficient mobilisation of stakeholder communities. The fourth, 'glocal' impact orientation, connects foresight activities to both local and international decision-making structures. Because global projects are heterogeneous, all four principles need to be implemented with a scalable design approach.

IMS2020 combined scenarios, vision-building and roadmapping on intelligent and sustainable manufacturing systems. Four scenario snapshots for 2025 informed a shared vision, and research topics were refined through an open wiki and prioritised in an online survey with 359 participants.

Cagnin, C., & Könnölä, T. (2014). Global foresight: Lessons from a scenario and roadmapping exercise on manufacturing systems. Futures, 59, 27–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2014.01.007 

Social Protection Systems & Essential Services is the third instalment in DLR Projektträger's Strategic Foresight series for the future European Partnership on Social Transformations and Resilience (STR). It asks how Europe's welfare systems can stay adequate, fair, and resilient as demographic change, labour market fragmentation, climate pressures, and digitalisation reshape who needs support and how they receive it.

The foresight process started with 25 candidate trends drawn from desk research, anchored in the European Commission's The Future of Social Protection and of the Welfare State in the EU and a scoping study on welfare systems in societal and ecological transitions. Five expert interviews sharpened the trend landscape, and a survey of 138 experts across 24 countries narrowed the field to ten priority trends. A workshop with 33 participants from 15 countries then mapped the cascading effects of each trend using the Futures Wheel method.

The ten trends cover strain on pension and care systems from an ageing population, widening divides between secure and precarious work, rising mental health needs, unequal exposure to climate shocks and transition costs, and eroding trust in welfare institutions, alongside the risks and opportunities of digitalisation in service delivery.

The report's best-case scenario for 2040 rests on four pillars: income security and inclusive labour market participation that closes coverage gaps for people in non-standard work; shock-responsive and climate-fair social protection that shields low-income households from unequal transition costs; human-centred digitalisation that improves access without deepening inequality or eroding trust; and trustworthy, coordinated welfare governance that reduces administrative barriers and strengthens fairness.

Fostering Education and Skills Development is the second cycle in DLR Projektträger's Strategic Foresight series for the future European Partnership on Social Transformations and Resilience (STR), following the inaugural cycle on the future of work. It examines how Europe's education and skills systems can adapt to demographic decline, AI and digitalisation, and rising demands on learners' well-being over the next 10 to 15 years.

Desk research produced 26 initial trends, refined through expert interviews and then tested in an online survey of 132 experts across 22 countries, who prioritised the ten most significant developments. A workshop with 32 participants across Europe mapped the first-, second-, and third-order implications of each trend using the Futures Wheel method.

The ten trends include mounting teacher shortages (40% of EU teachers are already over 50, only 8% under 30), AI and digitalisation reshaping skill demands while widening existing gaps, declining student mental well-being, the twin transition deepening socioeconomic skill divides, the rising importance of social and emotional skills, and persistently low adult upskilling rates.

The report's best-case scenario for 2040 is structured around five pillars: a sustainable, empowered teaching workforce with competitive pay and manageable workloads; fair and responsible use of technology that closes rather than widens digital divides; well-being and social skills embedded as core parts of education, not add-ons; lifelong learning genuinely available to all age groups and backgrounds; and education systems resilient to demographic decline and the twin transition.

A Fair Transition Towards Climate Neutrality closes DLR Projektträger's four-part Strategic Foresight series for the future European Partnership on Social Transformations and Resilience (STR). The report examines Europe's path to climate neutrality with a focus on fairness: who bears the costs, who gains the benefits, and how governments keep public trust along the way.

The foresight process combined desk research with input from 168 experts across 22 countries, five in-depth interviews, and a workshop with 42 participants from 17 countries. Together these steps produced 24 trends, then narrowed the field to the ten with the strongest impact on fairness and legitimacy.

Top trends include accelerating climate impacts outpacing adaptation spending, uneven access to clean technology and mobility, and cultural narratives shaping public acceptance of transition policies. The report traces first- and second-order effects for each trend, from strained EU solidarity between regions to widening gaps in local implementation capacity.

Building on these findings, the report sets out a best-case scenario for 2040, built on four pillars: fairness embedded directly into climate governance and fiscal design, protection for households and communities against unequal transition costs, participatory and place-based decision-making, and an inclusive skills transformation keeping workers ready for the shift toward climate neutrality.

Shaping the Future of Work opens DLR Projektträger's Strategic Foresight series for the future European Partnership on Social Transformations and Resilience (STR). The report asks a direct question: how will AI, automation, an aging workforce, and shifting worker expectations reshape European labour markets over the next 10 to 15 years?

Desk research produced 34 candidate trends. An online survey then gathered responses from 187 experts across 29 countries, followed by interviews with four scholars from IZA, Stockholm University, Copenhagen Business School, and the University of Surrey. A workshop with 27 participants from 14 countries tested and expanded the ten highest-impact trends using the Futures Wheel method.

Top trends span AI governance and ethics at work, automation restructuring jobs and tasks, growing pressure for lifelong learning and digital training, workforce decline linked to aging populations, and rising demand for autonomy in where, when, and how people work. Each trend comes with first- and second-order implications, showing how a single shift, such as wider gig work, reaches into pay security, social protection, and mental health.

The report closes with a best-case scenario for 2040, resting on four pillars: digital transformation guided by ethics and worker rights, learning systems open to everyone regardless of background or age, work models offering flexibility without trading away security, and an economy growing while investing in people and sustainability.

What will it mean to be a researcher in 2040 — and who will decide?
As part of the foresight study The Futures of Researchers' Careers: What Challenges for EU Policy?, funded by DG RTD, set of scenarios was developed to explore how research work in Europe could evolve over the next fifteen years. This summary presents the scenario component of the study: the world research is likely to operate in, and an aspirational alternative to it.

The context: Knowledge in Society 2040
By 2040, at global level research runs on a powerful, ever-present AI layer — an "intelligence infrastructure" that learns from research, industry and society and shapes how knowledge is created, shared and used. It drives three linked shifts: research speeds up as AI opens access to almost all human knowledge and shortens the path from idea to market; power concentrates, as a few "Super Big Tech" actors control the key AI platforms and states compete for strategic advantage; and contestation grows, as trust erodes under a flood of AI-generated output and the gap widens between those AI strengthens and those it leaves behind.

Left on this trajectory, and with current policy lagging behind, research careers come under pressure: a workforce split into tiers with no bridge between them, the value of public research captured by the owners of AI platforms, AI deciding what becomes visible and fundable, and slow recognition of hands-on empirical work and the new roles emerging around AI.

The response: Living Knowledge 2040
Living Knowledge 2040 is the study's aspirational alternative. It assumes the same dynamics as the context scenario — acceleration, concentration and contestation — but channels them toward public value. It is built on four layers:

The core — a Glass Engine, advanced AI that Europe builds and runs as civic infrastructure: transparent, publicly governed, auditable and contestable; and a Commons Authority that keeps it and the wider knowledge ecology in the public interest.
A trustworthy, plural knowledge ecology — where empirical and synthetic knowledge are equally valued, credibility rests on traceability rather than the journal a work appears in, dissenting views are actively surfaced, and collective and once-invisible work is recognised.
New forms of operating — from human–AI swarms and public "Action-Networks" to quest-based research, automated public research infrastructures, and AI-powered entrepreneurship — with careers moving fluidly among them.
An explicit ethos — wellbeing, collective work, public value, openness, meaning and full expression as the values the system is built to serve.

***

How the scenarios were developed

The scenarios are exploratory tools, not predictions: they set out plausible, internally consistent futures against which today's policies can be tested. Three were developed by the Institutul de Prospectiva team and progressively validated and enriched through consultation with the project's International Advisory Board, with one dedicated meeting per scenario type between May and June 2026. Together they trace a path from the world research will operate in, through the gaps in current policy, to an aspirational alternative.

The context scenario ("Knowledge in Society 2040") is global in scope and focuses on how knowledge — and its embodied forms of technologies, policies and norms — is produced, circulated and translated into societal impact. It was built by extrapolating a set of key drivers of change and exploring how they interact and amplify one another, with particular attention to the major actors — scientific communities, states, private-sector actors and society at large — and to the evolving interplay between their strategic, economic and normative interests.

The inertial scenario provides the bridge. It sets out thirteen current challenges facing Europe's research and innovation workforce, grouped into four categories: a fragmented research market; funding and employment structures; the training and socialisation model; and assessment and recognition systems. Each challenge is examined along three dimensions — its current state ("the Now"); its likely 2040 trajectory, assuming balanced optimism about current EU and national policies; and a "context push" that tests that trajectory against the global picture from the context scenario. This surfaces two kinds of tension: those where existing policies fall short of the projected dynamics, and entirely new ones that current frameworks do not yet recognise as problems and that would require genuinely new policy categories.

The aspirational scenario ("Living Knowledge 2040") was built in three steps, starting from the key tensions projected for 2040. These were put through a simplified Causal Layered Analysis that reopened some of the system's underlying premises — who owns the AI infrastructure, how contribution is recognised, how value is capitalised — producing twelve dimensions, each described as a current perspective and a potential shift by 2040. Clustering these dimensions gave the scenario its four-layer structure: the AI infrastructure and its public governance; the principles of the knowledge ecology around it; that ecology's forms of operating; and the overarching values of the ecosystem. Deliberately ambitious but not utopian, it assumes the same forces as the context scenario — pervasive AI, platformisation, concentration and contestation — but channels them toward public value.

I am a Ghanaian visual artist exploring future imaginaries through painting. My work, Brushes of Tomorrow, is a three-part visual narrative that reflects on survival, identity, and emotional resistance, inviting viewers to imagine more inclusive and hopeful futures through African perspectives.

Where Art Imagines Tomorrow.

We are living through a transition that feels, at once, like collapse and awakening. The crises surrounding us—ecological breakdown, technological acceleration, geopolitical fragmentation—are often treated as separate problems. But they are not. They are symptoms of a deeper rupture: a failure in how we perceive reality itself.

This is the beginning of the “Big Shift.” Not merely a historical turning point, but a transformation in consciousness. The dominant frameworks through which humanity has understood itself—nation, progress, even “humanity” as a unified moral subject—are no longer sufficient. They fragment under pressure because they were never grounded in the deeper fabric of existence. They abstracted us from the Earth, from each other, and ultimately from being itself.

Long before modern crises, ancient traditions understood something we have forgotten: the Earth is not an object. It is a living, sacred reality. Early liturgical texts and cosmologies did not separate matter from meaning. To speak of the Earth was already to speak of order, of balance, of participation in a larger whole. This was not “ecology” in the modern scientific sense—it was a lived metaphysics.

What has been lost is not knowledge in the narrow sense, but a way of knowing. The modern world, in its pursuit of control and clarity, reduced reality to what can be measured, extracted, and optimized. Technology is not the root problem; it is an extension of this perception. We did not simply build machines—we built a worldview that sees the world as machine.

And so we arrive at a strange paradox: we speak constantly of “saving humanity,” yet we do not even know what “humanity” means. It is an abstraction, a moral placeholder, often detached from real conditions and embedded inequalities. In trying to center humanity, we displaced the Earth. And in doing so, we undermined the very conditions that make human life possible.

A different orientation is needed. Not a rejection of humanity, but a re-centering within a larger field of existence. To love the Earth is not a poetic gesture—it is an ethical necessity. It means recognizing that harm to ecosystems is not external damage but a form of self-destruction. It means reframing ethics from human-centered to Earth-centered, from domination to participation.

This is where the future becomes most uncertain—and most significant. Artificial intelligence and emerging technologies are often framed in terms of capability and risk. But the deeper question is ontological: what kind of intelligence are we creating? If intelligence is participation, then ethical design requires more than safeguards—it requires alignment with the structures of reality itself.

We stand, then, at a threshold. The path forward is not a return to the past, nor a blind leap into technological futurism. It is a synthesis—a planetary civilization that draws from ancient wisdom while engaging modern knowledge. A civilization that recognizes the plurality of perspectives without losing sight of underlying unity.

This requires new forms of leadership, new frameworks of foresight, and a redefinition of progress. Not growth for its own sake, but alignment with the conditions that sustain life and meaning.

Ultimately, the future is not something we predict. It is something we participate in. Every action, every perception, contributes to the unfolding of reality. The question is not whether change is coming—it is whether we are capable of aligning with it.

To become planetary beings is not to transcend the Earth, but to belong to it fully. To act with awareness that we are not separate observers, but active participants in a living, dynamic cosmos.

The shift has already begun. The only question is whether we recognize it—and whether we are willing to follow it to its conclusion.

Numerous foresight studies have highlighted the need for a dietary transition to achieve a sustainable and healthy future, by reducing the consumption of animal-based foods and ultra-processed foods and increasing that of pulses, fruit and vegetables. However, the path to achieving this remains unclear, as access to food and food inequalities continue to pose a barrier to healthy eating (which is generally more expensive than conventional diets). In France, local citizens’ groups have formed a network to facilitate access to food and foster solidarity among consumers. Beyond global foresight, a transition towards healthy and equitable diets depends on concrete changes at the local level. Densely populated urban areas are ideal places to work together with citizens to imagine future changes.
This face-to-face workshop with citizens will focus on Territorializing food transition towards healthy diets and food justice by 2040. This workshop was co-designed with a local food organization, the 14th District Food Social Security (Paris).
With a group of 30-40 participants, various long-term scenarios will be developed and discussed in group sessions. The workshop will draw on a scenario-based approach grounded in morphological analysis and will explore three aspects of the transition: nutrition and dietary practices, food justice and solidarity, and supply chains. The workshop will examine current trends, weak signals and ongoing changes, including cultural, environmental and social dimensions, as well as the economic organisation of the food chain. The method incorporates social issues related to food. The outcomes will enable participants to develop shared visions of a future food transition and to envisage the territorial organisation of a food system that could be developed to achieve a desirable future.
The workshop is open to the general public. Everyone who wishes to contribute to the topic is welcome, drawing on the own experience of food of citizens and on the local actors of the food system.
The workshop is part of a series of “Eye of Europe” pilot activities taking place during 2026, aimed at exploring possible futures and their implications for research and innovation (R&I) policy.

"Linking Ukraine to the European Research Area" (LUKE) is a multilateral project aimed at strengthening the Ukrainian research and innovation system. It brings together 26 funding and research organisations from Europe and Ukraine, which are jointly developing and implementing a transnational call for R&I projects with Ukrainian participation. The thematic priorities are developed on the basis of Delphi surveys, citizen visioning workshops and strategic foresight. At the same time, the "Knowledge Hub" is creating a platform for targeted competence building, for example in the divisions of research management, technology transfer, innovation policy and science communication.

In addition, LUKE contributes to the strategic design of EU-Ukraine cooperation in the field of research and innovation. The project will conclude with a high-level conference to discuss future scenarios for the Ukrainian R&I system in the European context.

In a world facing multiple global challenges and geopolitical tensions strategic foresight helps organisations to anticipate long-term change to make better decisions in the present day.

Foresight offers a method for positive engagement beyond the focus on past or current issues, fostering creativity and providing alternatives to current paradigms. Using foresight tools can help to integrate youth perspectives into EU external action, focusing on desired futures, transition pathways and trends.

Through the Youth Action Plan in EU external action (YAP) the EU builds a partnership with young people worldwide by engaging, empowering, and connecting them through various processes and activities. The Y4F toolkit supports the implementation of the YAP, in particular the commitments to increase the voice and leadership of young people, promote their involvement in the EU external policies and actions, as well as to enhance institutional capacity and expertise of EU staff on how to engage with young people.

The Y4F toolkit fits into the first EU Strategy on Intergenerational Fairness (March 2026) developing the reflex of long-term thinking in EU policymaking, while giving greater weight to the views and concerns of young people. The EU's overarching goal is to guarantee that current decisions are made with the future in mind, ensuring a fair balance of benefits and burdens across all generations. The Strategy aligns with global efforts for a long-term approach in planning and policies, such as in the UN Declaration on Future Generations.

DG International Partnerships uses Foresight to shift our mind-set from the here-and-now (reactive) to future-in-the-making (anticipatory), in line with the European Commission’s embedding of Strategic Foresight in better policymaking.  

Youth4Foresight (Y4F) Toolkit

The Y4F toolkit is designed for experts who engage with young people as part of EU external action (such as Youth Sounding Boards at EU Delegation level, youth organisations, and any other kind of youth advisory structures at local or national level). However, the approach detailed in the toolkit can be used by anyone who wants to work with youth in the context of foresight or even just by young people alone.

We recommend that you start your journey by reading the Introduction to the Y4F Toolkit or watching the introductory webinar. You can also find inspiration in selected use cases. 

We recommend that you start your journey by reading the Introduction to the Y4F Toolkit or watching the introductory webinar. The full toolkit and webinars are universally available and can be accessed on the Capacity4Dev website. 

Our toolkit and additional materials are accessible in English, French, Portuguese and Spanish. 

Preamble
Across Europe, the use of foresight for Research and Innovation (R&I) policy is growing, but unevenly. In many places, it still sits at the margins of policymaking, and its full potential—to inspire broader societal change—is not yet realised.

The European R&I foresight community, made up of practitioners, policymakers, researchers, and future-oriented thinkers, is
becoming stronger and more connected. The Eye of Europe project, supported by the European Commission, helps this
community grow through the online hub futures4europe.eu, as well as workshops, conferences and shared learning spaces.

This manifesto stems from a “foresight on foresight” workshop held in Mamaia, Romania (18–19 September 2025), coordinated by UEFISCDI and the Austrian Institute of Technology. 30 foresight practitioners and R&I policy experts from across Europe gathered to imagine how foresight could better support R&I policy and practice. Furthermore, these contents have also been discussed and enriched during Eye of Europe’s final mutual learning event held in Chișinău, Moldova (23–24 October 2025).

This manifesto recognises the growing importance of foresight—not only within European R&I systems but also at the interface between R&I and society—repositioning the field as a driver of inspiration and renewal in shaping Europe’s futures.

Foresight as a Key Social Infrastructure for Europe
Vision 2030 in a nutshell

Research and Innovation (R&I) foresight is a shared space of imagination and inquiry, enabling Europe to live creatively with emergence and diversity. Beyond agenda-setting, it cultivates futures literacy across science, policy, and society — expanding our capacity to sense, interpret, and engage with novelty.

Embracing the open and interdependent nature of the world, foresight complements evidence with creativity and plural ways of knowing. It guides Europe’s research and innovation ecosystems to act with openness, responsibility, and imagination — co-creating sustainable and just futures as a shared public good.

🔵 EXTENDED ROLE OF R&I FORESIGHT
In 2030 R&I foresight enables boundary spanning, connecting sectoral policies, disciplines, and perspectives. Its value lies not only in generating agendas or scenarios, but in reshaping worldviews, reframing challenges, cultivating agency, enabling collective reflection, and inspiring transformative action

🔵 OPEN AND INCLUSIVE SPACES
In 2030 foresight thrives on openness, diversity, and empathy. It creates spaces where people engage not only as experts or institutional actors, but as whole humans— bringing values, worldviews, emotions, and lived experiences into the co-creation of futures.
Trust grows from transparency, fairness, and shared ownership of both processes and outcomes. While AI expands access to knowledge, human judgment, engagement creativity, and responsibility remain essential.

🔵 FUTURES LITERACY AS A FOUNDATIONAL CAPACITY
Futures literacy becomes both a foundation and a legacy of R&I foresight. It strengthens the collective ability to recognise assumptions, navigate uncertainty, and act with intention amid complexity.
Foresight processes evolve into open spaces for learning and experimentation, cultivating anticipatory competence among experts, policymakers, and citizens. Through its practices and communication, R&I foresight contributes to a societal diffusion of futures thinking, enhancing collective intelligence and agency.

🔵 A MATURE COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE
Foresight gains professional depth through dedicated academic programmes and practitioner networks. A wide variety of organisations embed foresight cultures that encourage reflection, experimentation, and communication. Shared infrastructures such as futures4europe.eu evolve into open, dynamic platforms for collaboration, knowledge exchange, and innovation in foresight.

Download the document at the top of the page to read the full version.

Future Impacts designs and implements foresight processes around questions on the
future of organisations and corporations. We carry out foresight projects to identify options
for future-oriented actions today. For this, we use or combine trend analysis, scenarios
and Delphi surveys, among other approaches. Aside from our focus on the development
and implementation of individualised foresight games, we also focus on foresight capacity
building. We support our clients to expand their foresight capabilities and skills through
training, toolkits and coaching.

Walk the Futures is a guided walking experience exploring what life in a local area might feel like in the year 2055, through stories, reflection, and the places that people already know.

We combine multi-sensory, place-based stories of possible futures with walking as a method and an embodied way of knowing, and a creative workshop to prompt reflection and commitments to climate and sustainable action.

Project details:
https://walkthefutures.org/ 

This report presents the outcomes of the Geopolitical Industrial Decarbonisation Scenarios workshop, convened on behalf of the Eye of Europe Horizon Europe project by the Insight Foresight Institute. Bringing together 30 participants from across the European Union—including policymakers at EU, national, and regional levels, industry leaders, energy and climate specialists, and foresight and forecasting experts—the workshop explored how the EU can navigate mounting geopolitical uncertainty while accelerating industrial decarbonization on a 2050 horizon.

The discussion was structured around two core aims. First, participants examined a suite of forward-looking geopolitical scenarios, assessing how divergent power dynamics, energy trade patterns, and technological trajectories could either hinder or catalyse the transition to a net-zero industrial base in the EU countries. Particular attention was paid to supply-chain resilience, strategic autonomy in critical materials, and the interplay between carbon border adjustments and global climate diplomacy. Second, the workshop sought to surface emergent research and innovation (R&I) needs and opportunities that would equip EU actors to thrive across the scenarios. Priorities highlighted include advanced electrification processes for hard-to-abate sectors, low-carbon hydrogen and synthetic-fuel value chains, circular-economy business models, and data-driven tools for real-time decarbonisation monitoring.

Outputs from the session feed directly into the Eye of Europe project’s multi-workshop learning cycle. Immediate products comprise this extended report for attendees; aggregated insights captured in the public Pilot Logbook Part I – What we did and Part II – What we learned; and distilled policy recommendations to be released in the Eye of Europe Policy Brief: Foresight Perspectives on Key R&I Topics. Beyond documentation, the Insight Foresight Institute will leverage the findings to stimulate agenda-setting dialogues with EU bodies and industrial stakeholders, ensuring that identified R&I pathways inform Horizon Europe programming and other EU-level funding instruments. Workshop materials and presentations are retrievable via the futures4europe.eu knowledge-sharing portal, reinforcing the project’s commitment to an open foresight community.

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/ 

𝗙𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗥&𝗜 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗽 unfolded on September 18-19th on Romania’s seaside coast — two breezy summer days that provided the perfect setting for a rich exploration of “foresight about foresight.”

Co-hosted by Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding - UEFISCDI and AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, and part of the 𝗘𝘆𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 (a Coordination and Support Action funded by the European Commission), the event brought together the community of practice working to 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗴𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 & 𝗜𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 (𝗥&𝗜) 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲.

Our shared ambition was to imagine a vision that is grounded in reality and lived experience, yet bold enough to inspire the next decade of foresight’s contribution to R&I.

Discussions flowed through several stages:
🌍 reflecting on today’s foresight landscape, particularly within R&I in Europe
🔎 identifying likely drivers of change for R&I in society by 2040
🧭 probing the forces that could reshape foresight itself by 2040 and finally,
🚀 envisioning the role and capabilities foresight will need to support R&I in 2040.

A vision document capturing the outcomes of the workshop will be shared in due course, once the many insights, contributions, and reflections have been carefully woven together. 

Romania’s public administration faces deep-rooted structural challenges that hinder the development of digital competencies and slow progress in both digital transformation and human resources management (HRM) reforms. While digital competencies are essential to achieving Romania’s public sector modernization goals, they are not a standalone solution. In this context, the government of Romania, assisted by the World Bank through the Technical Support Instrument (TSI), aims to develop a General Digital Competence Framework for Civil Servants.

This report if one of the outputs of the TSI project; its goal is to identify the digital competencies necessary at the intersection of Romania’s digital transformation and HRM reform agendas, laying the groundwork for a more capable and future-ready public administration. The report employs a comprehensive multi-layered analysis, incorporating: a top-down review of national and EU strategies, policies, and regulations; a bottom-up analysis of job descriptions, focus groups, interviews, and working groups; international best practices in public sector digital competencies; and a foresight perspective to anticipate future digital skill needs.

Chapter VI | Foresight: fit-for-future digital roles in the public administration describes the foresight exercise carried out by Institutul de Prospectiva and the World Bank, which was aimed at ensuring that the proposed digital competency framework will remain future-ready, enabling civil servants to navigate digital transformation, deliver citizen-centric services, and address complex policy challenges with agility and innovation. The process was meant to inform the definition of specific digital roles that are needed in the future, but also to allow the formulation of recommendations regarding the general digital competencies of public administration employees.

The foresight methodology utilized horizon scanning and scenarios (both explorative and normative), as essential tools in helping policymakers navigate uncertainty by exploring various probable and/or desirable futures. This foresight exercise focused on the year 2032, a timeframe suited for significant structural transformation in public administration, allowing for the development and maturity of complex digital systems.

In terms of process, the scenario-building process was based on an iterative consultation process. It built on inputs developed by the foresight team from Institutul de Prospectiva and was progressively refined through three online working sessions with international experts from the World Bank and the Joint Research Centre (JRC) and a final in-person workshop with local experts from the public administration and the private sector in Romania.
The figure below provides a concise overview of the scenario-building steps.

📌The Baseline Scenario “Romanian Digital Administration in 2032” provides a ‘current paradigm’ case: It takes the current Romanian strategic documents in the field of digital transformation as a starting point. It assumes that the key goals set in these
documents are generally met by 2032. The logic is the following: assuming Romania’s current digitalization paradigm (and
associated digital roles) turn out mostly as planned, what is the gap between this best-case baseline and the digital society scenarios for 2032?

📌The Context Scenario about the “Digital society in Romania in 2032” is an exploratory scenario, meaning it describes a probable future rather than one driven by a deliberate vision of a desirable future society. The core scenario integrates high-impact, high-probability trends - or drivers of change -identified in the initial horizon scanning phase. While these drivers describe the evolution of the European and global contexts, their advancement has been partially adjusted to reflect specific conditions in Romania. In addition to the core scenario, four other narratives were built around drivers of change previously identified as having high impact as well as a rather high degree of uncertainty. These new dimensions largely complement rather than challenge the core scenario.

📌The five Aspirational Scenarios 2032 describe visions regarding the digital transformation of the Romanian public administration, going beyond the trajectory set in the baseline scenario. They examine a range of potential paths/options that could contribute, individually or in various combinations, to a more ambitious and impactful digital transformation in the public administration. Each scenario revolves around a key dimension. Primarily, these dimensions emerge from Romania’s current policy discourse and strategic documents, where they are often mentioned but with limited precision or commitment. Additionally, they reflect elements of the context scenario, incorporating anticipated societal developments by 2032, as
well as digital trends and paradigm shifts observed in public administrations in the EU and worldwide.

A list of key digital roles follows the baseline and aspirational scenarios, outlining the expertise civil servants need to bring them to life. These roles do not distinguish between in-house and outsourced expertise, as that remains a separate decision.

This report sums up recent developments in neurotechnology, that is, technology that can read and modify activity from the central nervous system. Some devices record information from the brain, and others deliver stimulation to the brain (and some do both).
These technologies are rapidly advancing and are likely to have a profound impact on various aspects of society. In the near future, neurotechnology is set to revolutionise the way we approach a range of policy areas, from healthcare, education, employment, law enforcement and security, to more obvious areas such as technology, digital and research.
The report analyses advances in the technologies for monitoring and stimulating the brain, some of which are incorporated into neurotechnology devices. It acts as a horizon-scan of new and emerging uses of these technologies, and takes these as inputs to pose a range of questions for the consideration of policymakers.

Read more from the blogpost by the author.

WE HAVE A SOCIAL MISSION: TO STIMULATE CRITICAL THINKING ABOUT EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES.
We focus on Futures & Foresight (Futures Thinking / Futures Studies & Strategic Foresight), with a specialization in Technology Foresight and ETS, Emerging Technologies Scanning. We are also dedicated to Futures Literacy, which involves the theoretical and practical literacy of Futures Studies and Futures Thinking. Through a Slow Journalism model, we disseminate and promote knowledge of emerging technologies, analyzing their potential impacts on our possible and alternative futures.

Futures thinking is in our DNA. SAMI was created as the St Andrews Management Institute in 1989, as a joint venture between Shell, the pioneers in scenario planning, and St Andrews University. That powerful mix of academic rigour and practical delivery continues in work and with our people today: Experienced practitioners, world-renowned futures authors, and consultants with first-hand experience of the public sector and the challenges facing it.

SAMI was commissioned by the Government Office for Science to overhaul its Futures Toolkit. We have reviewed and re-written many of the core tools, adding new ones and advising on more advanced techniques.

SAMI Consulting Ltd are futures domain specialists. We have 30 years’ experience of working internationally, with the European Commission and with HM Government on futures projects. We understand the specific needs of Government in formulating and reaching decisions at both the policy and delivery levels. We have worked with the Cabinet Office, the Government Office for Science and HMG central departments; agencies; Local Government, Local Enterprise Partnerships, NDPBs, police forces and security agencies, universities and charities.

We work with you using a wide range of foresight tools including scenario planning. We identify
major drivers of change impacting your organisation, develop different futures and test alternative
strategies. This participative approach builds capability in your team, enabling them to become
more innovative and more able to react rapidly to unexpected change.

We offer the full range of Futures capability from gathering intelligence, to making sense of it, to
testing and developing your strategy, making decisions and taking action. We use the full range of
Futures and Foresight tools, conduct our own research and maintain our own knowledge acquisition
mechanisms. This means we can deliver a faster, tailored and more sophisticated response to your
needs and avoid ‘reinventing the wheel.’

SAMI’s experienced facilitators are adept at managing the unique challenges of futures workshops.
We enable participants to step outside their present-bias into a futures-mode of thinking

Summary

Core Themes
The book reimagines humanity’s future through planetary foresight, blending historical wisdom with planetary stewardship. It critiques linear Western progress narratives and advocates for a hybrid, cyclical vision of history, emphasizing pluralistic identities and reverence for life.

Structural Framework
Organized into thematic sections, the work begins with “The Mysterious Lord of Time,” challenging linear temporality and introducing non-linear, culturally diverse historical perspectives. “Evolving Belief Systems” contrasts Indo-Iranic, Mesopotamian, and Hellenic thought with Abrahamic traditions, highlighting ancient influences on modern pluralism.

Imagination and Futures
The “Histories of Imagination” section explores myth and storytelling as drivers of civilization, while “Scenarios of Future Worlds” applies foresight methodologies to geopolitical and technological evolution, emphasizing ecological consciousness. The final chapters expand to cosmic intelligence and ethics, framing humanity’s role within universal interconnectedness.

Ethical Vision
Central to the thesis is a call for planetary identity and stewardship, merging forgotten wisdom traditions with modern foresight to navigate ecological and technological uncertainties. The book positions itself as both a philosophical guide and practical framework for ethical transformation in an era of global crises.

Key Argument
Motti asserts that humanity is transitioning from a “Second Nomad Age” (characterized by fragmentation) toward a “Second Settlement Age” marked by planetary consciousness, requiring creative complexity and ethical vigilance.

Foresight seems to be on everyone’s lips these days – but what is it really and, more importantly, how can you use it in your own work? This “menu” is designed to help policymakers understand and leverage foresight for more effective strategy- building and decision-making.

Foresight is about thinking long-term to make smarter choices now. It is a collective effort to look beyond the present and consider what could happen in the future. Foresight isn’t about gazing into a crystal ball, but a way to methodically broaden our perspective and prepare for different possible futures scenarios.

There are many reasons and ways to engage in long-term thinking for policymaking. This menu showcases the various goals and approaches of foresight in policy contexts, featuring tools and processes that the EU Policy Lab can offer. 

Source: European Commission - Knowledge for policy  

After an extensive synthesis of the OECD’s existing work on the teaching profession over the years, the need to explore professional roles and identity became obvious. The roles and responsibilities of teachers have seen significant changes over the past decade. Education, childhood, labour markets and society as a whole have experienced considerable changes, prompting the need to think about the effects of changes on the teaching profession. The OECD Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) project on New Professionalism and the Future of Teaching project researched how professionalism has evolved, including the importance of working with others to confront increasingly complex contexts, so called “connective professionalism”. Based on the evidence base and ideas for next practice, the project developed a methodology to help diverse stakeholders in education to construct a shared vision on what the teaching profession could look like in the future.

This study in Wales (United Kingdom) is the second in a series of three education system studies conducted in 2023 and 2024. Various stakeholders, including teachers, school leaders, researchers, teacher educators, teacher unions, and professionals (potentially) supporting teachers and schools provided feedback on their ambitions for the future of teaching in Wales. Choosing among a set of ambitions to better connect teachers with other professionals within the school community, other education providers (such as universities and teacher education colleges) and broader society, they shared their judgements of what would be high priority and also how big a change this would be from the current context. Would it be an ambition for transformation over a period of many years? Or would it be possible to build on existing mechanisms or initiatives? Or could this ambition be achieved by improvements over the short term?

Different perspectives were gathered in two main ways. First, via an online survey. Second, via two stakeholder workshops in Bangor and Cardiff where a total of six working groups collectively constructed scenarios for the future of teaching. Each working group comprised individuals with different roles and responsibilities in or around schools. They worked with the results of the survey and selected priority ambitions to support their vision on the future of teaching. These provided stimulus for their discussions, but their specific visions grew out of a mutual exchange of professional experiences from different perspectives within and surrounding teaching in Wales.

Of course, this study in no way aims to be representative or comprehensive. It draws on the work of a group of willing professionals with a stake in Wales education who offered to share their expertise. This initial effort to anticipate and increase deeper, structured thinking about medium- and long-term scenarios for teacher professionalism and empowerment offers input on how to strengthen the teaching profession in Wales. Potential benefits for the system include long-term strategic thinking regarding the Welsh teacher workforce and finding solutions to issues that transcend the short term.

While constructing their scenarios for the future of teaching, stakeholders reflected on four research questions set for this study by the team at Welsh Government in consultation with the OECD.

How do we develop teacher professional identity and a more collaborative profession? The set of future scenarios envisage a focus on collective professional identity at a school level. There would be particular focuses on peer-to-peer interactions as well as school-to-school exchanges. Time and space would be provided to support a variety of exploration that involves building innovations, following passions and interests, engaging in shared learning, working with colleagues, communities and other partners.

How could a career development perspective for all staff in schools contribute to a vibrant and thriving workforce? Career development would be an integral focus to support the workforce. This would include visible and diverse career pathways that follow and invest in career journeys. Teachers would be supported to engage in their own professional growth journey and collaborations that enrich their professional work. Career pathways would allow for flexibility and lifelong learning opportunities that support a dynamic workforce.

How can all who work in schools encourage innovation and the examination of professional roles in schools as learning organisations? Valuing innovative practices requires alignment at all levels to define what innovation looks like at a school level. This includes strengthening collaborative practices that support reflection, experimentation, partnering and sharing. Support includes time and space to work as part of a professional community. It is important to build connections across innovations to reduce duplication of effort and to maximise shared learning.

And how could investment in the professional identity of teachers, especially in secondary schools, make the profession in those settings more attractive? Teachers should be able to align their intrinsic motivation to their teaching, keeping their practice closer to their professional interests and qualities, and having a sense of autonomy in their work. Investing in continuous, bespoke support and professional development enhances teacher well-being, strengthens their professional identity, and makes the teaching profession more attractive and rewarding. Meaningful development opportunities, recognition, and leadership roles enhances the profession’s appeal and fosters long-term commitment.

The OECD identified seven key elements that feature across a set of four preferred future scenarios for the future of teaching in Wales. Arguably, all would be important to the future of teaching and many are common to several of the scenarios. In particular, diverse professional roles and careers, healthy working environment, school leadership, community support/ partnerships, school-university partnerships, innovation and communication feature to some extent across all four scenarios. Governance and accountability were explicitly featured in three scenarios.

The study also underlines the importance of thinking in more nuanced ways about the existing teacher workforce and potential new recruits. There is a rich diversity of professionals working within schools in Wales, with different motivations, life phases, passions, ambitions and professional development needs. An evidence-informed set of seven Welsh teacher personas provides input to stress test the set of future scenarios. What would different teachers find attractive in the future scenarios that were developed? Would it be particularly attractive to experienced teachers? Would newer recruits hold some reservations? Would it match what younger people will be looking for in their working lives? Overall, the Welsh teacher personas responded positively to the suggested scenarios for the teaching profession in Wales.

This report presents results of the initial reflection and provides tools to extend the exercise going forward.

Source: OECD - Publications  

About

The LifeFactFuture (LFF) project combines world class-excellence of Finnish life science companies, technology companies and academic researchers. It seeks to enhance advanced pharmaceutical and life science manufacturing in Finland.

The LFF consortium includes research teams at the University of Turku and the University of Helsinki, as well as some of Finland’s leading life science manufacturers, data and technology companies. The goal of the project collaboration is to speed up the introduction of digital solutions and more efficient utilization of data and to make Finland the most attractive place in the world for investments in data-driven life science manufacturing.

Current global vendors for pharmaceutical manufacturing are not able to provide the critical future data capabilities already identified by the sector in Finland. The data-driven capabilities offered by life science manufacturing vendors are assessed as less mature than similar solutions for other manufacturing sectors such as the automotive industry.

If Finland becomes the lighthouse for exploiting new data-driven capabilities in advanced life sciences manufacturing, new billion-euro export opportunities are on the horizon. The export potential is considerable within the life science sector itself as well as within technology industry companies supplying the life science sector with data-driven capabilities.

LFF is designed to fulfill the following objectives:

World-class, interdisciplinary research published in high-level journals.
Map the transformative potential of data-driven capabilities in pharmaceutical manufacturing.
Facilitate the design and adoption of regulatory practices in favor of agile/adaptive manufacturing.
Support the development of technology Proofs of Concept advancing data-driven life science manufacturing.
Progress made in developing sustainable business competencies in digital production environment.


The consortium is led by the Finland Futures Research Centre, University of Turku and
funded by Business Finland during 2024–2026.

The stages of the implemented process were as follows:

1. Shared understanding of the current situation in the mountain areas
The discussions within the working groups started from a set of summarized information from the extensive analyses previously conducted, structured by strengths and weaknesses, along with additional synthetic data on the tourism, agriculture, forestry, and wood industry sectors.

2. Selection of the drivers of change
The working groups explored and enriched a list of factors/trends that influence the contextual change toward the 2035 horizon, across various dimensions: social, technological, economic, ecological, geopolitical, and values-based factors.

3. Scenario projection for 2035
Based on thematically grouped change drivers, the working groups envisioned and described the state of mountain areas in 2035 under the influence of these drivers, in the absence of strategic corrective interventions.

4. Identification of aspirations – key values, opportunities, best practices
The groups proposed and debated a series of values and aspirations for the future of mountain areas by 2035, including inspiration from best practices in other countries.

5. Consolidation of aspirations into clear directions for transforming mountain areas
This stage involved grouping aspirations by thematic areas, more clearly articulating the transformation vector, and partially exploring concrete actions that would enable these transformations. The sum of these transformation directions forms the **Vision for mountain areas by 2035**.

6. Roadmapping - includes the set of actions that support progress toward the desirable transformation of the mountain areas, across multiple levels.

7. Priority directions
Participants in the workshops identified the actions perceived as the most impactful and/or urgent in transforming mountain areas.

The project relies on a foresight methodology that involves a number of co-creation workshops with stakeholders in the sector. The workshops engaged participants in a step-by-step process, as follows:

1. Building a common understanding of the current societal/consumer behaviors and attitudes (level of fish and seafood consumption, types of products consumed, preference for local products, expectations regarding traceability, environmental concerns etc.);
2. Assessing the evolution of societal/consumer expectations by 2035 (on the same parameters as above);
3. Mapping the current fishing and aquaculture system, in terms if strengths and weaknesses;
4. Sketching the inertial future scenario of the fishing and aquaculture sector in Romania, meaning the likely scenario for 2035 in the absence of corrective policy interventions;
5. Identifying future opportunities that would allow the system to progress towards more desirable scenarios than the inertial scenario;
6. Collaboratively developing normative scenarios, capitalizing on selected opportunities;
7. Based on the normative scenarios, extracting the main pillars of a future vision for 2035;
8. Describing, in more depth, the vision components;
9. Identifying the areas of transformation that enble achieving the vision;
10. Calibrating strategic objectives for 2030, taking into account the pace of transformation;
11. Identifying governance principles.
    

This foresight study aims to support the design of a robust and adaptable digital competency framework that aligns with the long-term strategic priorities of the public administration in Romania. Additionally, it seeks to ensure the framework remains future-ready, enabling civil servants to navigate digital transformation, deliver citizen-centric services, and address complex policy challenges with agility and innovation.

The foresight methodology utilized horizon scanning and scenarios (both explorative and normative) as essential tools in strategic planning, helping organizations and policymakers navigate uncertainty by exploring various probable and/or desirable futures.

This study focuses on the year 2032, a timeframe suited for structural transformation in public administration, allowing for the development and maturity of complex digital systems.

The scenario-building process was based on inputs developed by the foresight team at Institutul de Prospectiva and was progressively refined through three online working sessions and a final in-person workshop.

The figure below provides a concise overview of the scenario-building steps, followed by a detailed explanation of the characteristics and objectives of each scenario type.

We help people and organisations imagine, work with, and shape their future. 

CIFS is one of the worlds oldest think tanks exclusively focusing on foresight. CIFS teach very popular courses in foresight, gives key notes and launch various initiatives and do research projects. CIFS is a self-owned think tank, completely independent of special interests. 

The fourth Mutual Learning Event of the 𝐄𝐲𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞 project took place in beautiful Budapest, focusing on "𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐋𝐨𝐧𝐠-𝐓𝐞𝐫𝐦 𝐕𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐒𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠."

The event featured presentations on European and national foresight exercises, highlighting diverse practices in shaping long-term visions and setting strategic priorities. These insights fueled lively discussions during two interactive sessions.

Over twenty participants from diverse stakeholder groups joined the event held in Budapest, Hungary: Eye of Europe partner organizations, representatives from the European Commission, R&I funding agencies, representatives of governmental bodies. 

Presentations

• Opening and Introduction to the Eye of Europe project | Radu Gheorghiu, coordinator (UEFISCDI, Romania)
• Introduction to Forward-looking Activities and Policy Making | Attila Havas (CERS, Hungary)
• Introduction of the MLE4 context, objectives and agenda | Lenka Hebáková (TC Prague, Czechia)
• Foresight for European R&I Priorities | Nicola Francesco Dotti, EC’s DG for Research and Innovation: Common R&I Strategy & Foresight Service
• Building anticipatory governance as a core element of policymaking across OECD countries | Julia
  Staudt
• Malta: Foresight and Visioning in the R&I policy cycle | Jennifer Cassingena Harper, Insight Foresight
  Institute
• UK: Discussing strategies for positioning a country or region as a leader in specific R&I domains | Luke Georghiou, University of Manchester
• Romania: Digital Transformation in the Romanian Public Administration: Scenarios and Associated
  Digital Roles for Civil Servants | Bianca Dragomir, Institutul de Prospectiva
• Hungary: The Priorities and the Methodology of the Programme Strategy | Péter Racskó, NRDI
  Office
  

This event is the fourth in a series of five MLEs planned in the project; the following event will be held in Chișinău, Moldova. All Eye of Europe MLEs are organized by Technology Centre Prague (TC), Eye of Europe partner and key Czech national think tank and academia based NGO with a rich experience with knowledge-based policy making support and (participatory as well as expert based) foresight activities.

The fourth Mutual Learning Event addressed topic of long-term visioning and priority-setting. The two-day foresight event gathered experts, policymakers and foresight practitioners to discuss among others participatory foresight practices, and the integration of foresight into policymaking. Presentations emphasized the importance of preparedness, stakeholder engagement, and the need for quality standards in foresight methodologies. Discussions highlighted challenges in mainstreaming foresight, including institutional commitment, regional disparities, and balancing expert input with participatory inclusiveness. Key takeaways included the need for clearer principles, stronger political support, and context-specific tools. Looking ahead, upcoming events in Romania, Moldova will serve to consolidate learnings and strengthen the foresight community’s role in shaping resilient, future-ready policies.

With this project, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) aims to systematically integrate fundamental rights into EU foresight processes and activities. The project explores reference scenarios for fundamental rights and considers how different drivers of change could impact on fundamental rights in the period up until 2040. The scenarios will form the basis for a set of foresight policy briefs for selected megatrends. The project builds on the reference foresight scenarios developed by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, with a view to complement them with fundamental rights considerations.

The project includes horizon scanning, retrofitting scenarios, visioning, developing future pathways and policy options stress-testing. In all the activities, the project utilizes FRA’s draft guidance on inclusive, non-discriminatory and participatory foresight. Outputs comprise of a set of fundamental rights scenarios, foresight policy briefs and a guidance on embedding fundamental rights into foresight.

This project and the foresight knowledge it generates will enable FRA and other stakeholders to support EU institutions and Member States in addressing future challenges by creating a foresight framework that incorporates a fundamental rights perspective and ensures that policies remain inclusive, forward-looking and in line with the EU's core values.

The Twinning Light project (2023-2024) redefined the future role of the Albanian Agency for Scientific Research and Innovation (NASRI) in the research and innovation ecosystem. The foresight component addressed the following questions What will a future research and innovation ecosystem in Albania look like and what role will NASRI play in it? How can NASRI position itself in this dynamic environment? What concrete steps are needed to achieve NASRI's goals? Together, project experts, NASRI staff and stakeholders developed a roadmap outlining concrete actions and milestones for the strategic reorientation of the agency. The developed roadmap includes recommendations for positioning NASRI in a dynamic environment as well as steps for implementing these goals - with the involvement of relevant partners in the ecosystem. 

MATS aims to identify key leverage points for changes in agricultural trade policy that foster the positive and reduce the negative impacts of trade on sustainable development and human rights. Particular attention is paid to SDG1 No Poverty, SDG2 Zero Hunger and SDG3 Good Health and Well-being, as well as SDG6 Clean Water, SDG13 Climate Action and SDG15 Life on Land. Focus is on improving the governance, design and implementation of trade practices, regimes and policies at national, EU, African and global levels.

In implementation, MATS develops and pilots new tools for a systemic analysis, and assessment, of the interactions between agricultural trade, investments, sustainability and development.

4CF The Futures Literacy Company is a consultancy entirely focused on strategic foresight and long-term strategies. For nearly two decades, 4CF has been on the mission to help its clients prepare for an uncertain tomorrow. The Company has executed hundreds of projects for private companies, public institutions and international entities, including the European Commission and its agencies (EUDA, ENISA), FAO, UNFCCC, UNESCO, UNEP and UNDP. 4CF is at the forefront of global innovation, and actively contributes to the development of cutting-edge foresight tools, including 4CF HalnyX (Delphi platform), 4CF Sprawlr, 4CF FLEx.

The EU Policy Lab is a space for cross-disciplinary exploration and innovation in policymaking. We apply collaborative, systemic and forward-looking approaches to help bringing the scientific knowledge of the Joint Research Centre into EU policymaking.

We experiment with the new, the unprecedented and the unknown. We seek to augment our understanding of the present, challenge and reinvent the way we think about the future.

The EU Policy Lab is also a mindset and a way of working together that combines stories and data, anticipation and analysis, imagination and action. We bring new practical and radical perspectives to tackle complex problems in a collaborative way. Together, we explore, connect and ideate to create better policies.

The Competence Centre on Foresight is part of the EU Policy Lab and supports EU policy making by providing strategic and future-oriented input, developing an anticipatory culture inside the European Commission, and continuously experimenting and developing different methods and tools to make foresight useful for decision making processes. 

The vision of FOSTER is to build a foundation from which a new Knowledge and Innovation System (KIS) for Europe’s food system can emerge. The current structure is insufficient to address the emerging challenges of nourishing people in a healthy and sustainable way. Key objective is to gain insights into how it can be built to be more inclusive and better governed. 

FOSTER shall help to transform Europe’s food system outcomes and will achieve this by: 

• building a FOSTER Platform including food system-state of the art knowledge, foresight by semi-automated Horizon scanning, trend and threats-analysis and new multi-dimensional scenarios of EU food systems to 2040; 
• implementing the FOSTER Academy – including four Summer Schools – for integrating food system-related disciplines and citizen science to enhance food system understanding across the ERA; 
• initiating and assessing a co-creation and co-learning process within six national resp. regional Citizen Driven Initiatives (CDIs), in which new knowledge, strategies and Action Research Agendas are gained; 
• scaling out and deep CDIs solutions and approaches to other territorial contexts; 
• studying different R&I mechanisms of policy support for mission-oriented R&I policy for food systems transformation, and analysing and ground-proofing them in each CDI; 
• strengthening science-policy interfaces by co-learning processes with external experts and developing recommendations for food systems R&I policies tailored to different geographies and sectors; 
• identifying the trigger points to help ‘unlock’ system lock-ins and support further dynamics towards system transformation; 
• and applying reflective monitoring on all FOSTER’s co-learning activities to develop insights into how the KIS can be broadened from an agricultural-KIS to a food system-KIS.
  

To inspire adoption of FOSTER learnings, over 20 workshops and a final conference will be conducted; scientific position papers and policy briefs will be widely communicated. 

The general objective of the project was of strengthening the anticipatory capacity for the development of evidence-based public policies in the field of Research, development and Innovation (RDI) in Romania.

A considerable part of the project consisted in the elaboration of the National Strategy for Research, Innovation and Smart Specialization 2022-2027 and the key implementation instrument, namely The National Plan for Research, Development and Innovation 2022-2027.

The foresight components of the project included:

- A Vision building process for setting the sistemic transformations by 2030

- The foresight based entrepreneurial discovery process for selecting national smart specializations

- The priority setting for the National Research Agenda, which is focused on societal challanges.

The foresight results have been integrated in the final documents (e.g. national strategy and plan) and adopted by Governmental decision.

We’re pioneering the European Health Data Space by building the first Regional Smart Health Data Space.

On an Ambitious Mission
We embarked on an ambitious mission to reshape the smart healthcare landscape and accelerate innovation within four Widening countries – Bulgaria, Romania, Cyprus, and Greece.

Our overarching objective is to foster an environment where smart health innovations thrive, creating excellent innovation ecosystems within the participating widening countries, while having the support of three developed countries – Sweden, Germany, and Spain.

Aligned with the Regional Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisation (RIS3) in healthcare, we aim to leverage cutting-edge technologies such as Big Data, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT) to enable personalized medicine, informed decision-making, and enhanced disease prediction.

Beacons of Innovation
We will create the first Regional Smart Health Data Space (RSHDS). This marks a significant milestone on our journey towards a unified European Health Data Space (EHDS).

We will showcase the capabilities of the RSHDS through the implementation of four interconnected pilots, each addressing critical healthcare challenges:

• Cancer treatment (Greece)
• Alzheimer (Bulgaria)
• Cerebral tumours (Romania)
• Dementia (Cyprus)

Within this project, UEFISCDI is leading, among other activities, Task 6.3 - Long term common R&I and investment strategic agenda and action plan. The task will develop a joint R&I strategic agenda aligned with regional/national Smart Specialization Strategies, with local and European regulations concerning data governance and data sharing, as well as with the European Policy priority of Data Driven Digital Transition and Smart Health.

For this, it will use foresight-based methodologies such as backcasting, visioning, foresight expert workshops and other. 

The Vision was developed as part of the project Elaboration of the Strategy on Strengthening the Efficiency of Public Administration 2014-2020.

The vision building process involved over 40 representatives of public administration agencies and a variety of stakeholders in two day-long workshops. The process comprised four main stages:

• an exploration of drivers of societal change by 2025;
• defining an aspiration for 2025;
• defining success scenarios for 2025 
• defining transformational factors for public administratio reform.

In the same project, a Dynamic Argumentative Delphi was deployed for assesing the future impact of a set of policy measures in relation the established vision.

The resulting vision document and the selected policies has been included in the National Strategy on Strengthening the Efficiency of Public Administration 2014-2020, which has been adopted by Governement Decision.

The FOReSiGHT project
FOReSiGHT - Flexibility and Resilience in Digital Transformation and Intelligent Automation - Advanced Skills and Tools for Academia and Entrepreneurs is a 30-month roject implemented between 2020 - 2023 by a consortium of 7 partners universities, SMEs, NGOs) from 5 countries: Romania, Germany, Italy, Croatia and Belgium.
Overall, FOReSiGHT aims at creating a digital collaboration platform between universities and companies to anticipate and deliver future skills on intelligent automation, digital transformation & algorithmic governance, and foresight, thus fostering resilience and flexibility.

The Foresight Kit for Entrepreneurial Minds
This generation of students needs to embrace the idea of the future with a sense of activism and design. We encourage them to regard the future as a malleable and constructible set of possibilities. This attitude is in stark contrast with people- the youth included- feeling they are witnesses to the future unfolding, or merely in the position to adapt to change as it occurs. Future minded students are the ones exploring, imagining and deliberating potential futures. Students with entrepreneurial ambitions are invited to use the tools in this kit to go even further than imagining and debating the future; they are invited to co-create futures that are desirable for the ecosystems/communities/ clients they aim to serve.
We trust this foresight kit for entrepreneurial minds will provide useful guidance for young people interested in shaping the future. While this is an intellectual journey aimed at university students, the kit is meant to support facilitators in organizing and running a foresight experience. Thus, the kit describes the procedural steps for organizing a foresight process for students interested in generating entrepreneurial ideas that may address the challenges and opportunities of the future, as opposed to merely speculating the opportunities of the present.

Insight Foresight Institute (IF-Institute) is an independent research and consultancy firm founded in Madrid (Spain) in 2015. We orchestrate expertise in entrepreneurial innovation ecosystems to spark and drive structural changes, enhance resilience and direct society towards social, economic and environmental sustainability.

Our main sectors

Education|Energy And Environment | Health And Social Care | ICT | Manufacturing | Research And Innovation | Services | Transport And Infrastructure

Our solutions

* Activation & Alignment – scaling up ecosystem activities
* Insight & Foresight – assessing the past performance and exploring future developments
* Strategy & Governance – providing direction and structures
* Training & Mentoring – building capacities and capabilities
* Programming & Implementation – turning visions into action

Our partners

We offer a platform for experts and organisations to come up with creative and viable solutions to complex problems. We work with business, policy, academia and other stakeholders.

* We help established companies to position themselves in the wider ecosystem and work with stakeholders to empower their innovation activities.
* We help startups to define their growth plans and work with other organisations to scale up their transformative business.
* We help policymakers and their stakeholders to improve ecosystem performance and work together for transformative change. Our sectors

I very much enjoyed the Luxembourg Strategy event on 5 June 2023 presenting its draft vision for the Economy in 2050. Here is a country leading the way by setting out how to reach a zero-carbon future.

Hexa-X’s 6G flagship research is shaping the design of European wireless technologies to be environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable, while ensuring competitiveness in the global market.

Wondering about the European Union's future role on the world stage? 🇪🇺 On behalf of the Federal Foreign Service of Germany, the DLR-PT conducted a Strategic Foresight Workshop including a Futures Literacy Lab on the topic 'The European Union as a global actor in 2040?'! Together with experts and Federal Foreign Office staff, the DLR-PT explored innovative ways of thinking about the futures. 

Results for the working group Water are available at: http://foresight.cnr.it/working-groups/wg-water.html

Results for the working group Complexity are available at: http://foresight.cnr.it/working-groups/wg-comple-xxi.html 

Results for the working group Models, Algorithms, and Data for the Future are available at: http://foresight.cnr.it/working-groups/wg-mad4future.html 

Results for the working group Materials are available at: http://foresight.cnr.it/working-groups/wg-materials.html 

Article "STEM materials: a new frontier for an intelligent sustainable world" by Pier Francesco Moretti is available at https://bmcmaterials.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s42833-019-0004-4 

Results for the working group Health are available at: http://foresight.cnr.it/working-groups/wg-health.html

Results for the working group Food are available at: http://foresight.cnr.it/working-groups/wg-food.html 

Results for the working group Energy are available at: http://foresight.cnr.it/working-groups/wg-energy.html 

The Science and Technology Foresight Project has carried out initiatives of great relevance, in order to define research strategies able to address crucial social problems related to energy, food, health, water, as well as the cross-sectoral topic of breakthrough innovative materials. Link to the webpage.

Both, the holist ic approach applied to the analysis of the topics, as well as the innovative format of the invitation only workshops, enticed the participation of internationally acknowledged experts. This framework guaranteed all participants the necessary conditions to carry out an open interactive debate, consolidating a collective intelligence, which assisted in achieving a consensus on research priorities, knowledge gaps, and funding needs.

The Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding (UEFISCDI) is a public institution with legal personality subordinate to the Ministry of National Education in Romania.

Attributions:

• we assist the National Council for the Financing of Higher Education (CNFIS) in the elaboration of proposals for methodologies and documentation related to the financing of higher education;
• we coordinate, under the scientific guidance of the advisory councils of the Ministry of Education with responsibilities in R&I, programs within the National Plan for Research, Development and Innovation;
• we carry out and implement institutional and system development projects, related to higher education, research, development or innovation, with national and international funding, with the approval of the Ministry of Education;
• we offer consultancy and technical assistance for the development and management of projects within the domestic and international programs of scientific research, technological development and stimulation of innovation.

Democracy across Europe has experienced immense challenge, change and uncertainty in recent years (Canal 2014; European Commission & Merkel; 2019) - from the rise of populism to decreasing levels of public trust in governance institutions and processes, to the war in Ukraine. Set against the backdrop of these issues, EUARENAS has been investigating how cities and urban spaces can strengthen legitimacy, identification and engagement within the democratic public sphere. Specifically, EUARENAS has been exploring how participation and deliberation in democracy and decision-making can be increased, and how voices and communities who are excluded from such arenas can be more actively involved.

Foresight is one of the research strands present in EUARENAS. In this project, foresight is both a tool for understanding democratic innovations as they emerge, and for engaging citizens and other actors in such innovations within the participatory and deliberative realms. Mixed method approaches to foresight that incorporate a diversity of activities such as media discourse analysis, lived experience storytelling, social media analysis, three horizons mapping, driver-mapping, scenario and visioning exercises and policy stress- testing have been used in EUARENAS to investigate and hypothesise over future trends and scenarios in participatory democracies. 

From this work, we propose the following recommendations for Cities wanting to strive towards more equitable local democracies:

1. Address structural barriers to participation
2. Build relationships of trust
3. Invest in formal and civic education
4. Make decisions for the long-term

A more equitable, inclusive local democracy landscape is not too far in the distance for us to conceive it being possible. In fact, the future is now – the seeds to create it are already being planted, they just need nurturing by:

• Scaling and mainstreaming existing pilot or niche practices that are working locally – whether that beparticipatory budgeting, citizen assemblies or other smaller-scale projects – so that these become thenew ‘status quo’
• Adopting test and learn approaches to promote experimentation and on-going learning – this will enableongoing innovation and be responsive to society's needs
• Finding ways to celebrate and connect-up the small changes that are taking place - this will help people see that progress is being made, even when it feels like things are changing too slow

#OurFutures invites people across the EU to share their imagined futures.

The project supports and inspires a collective dialogue about the future of Europe and its visions for the future. 

We welcome your short story expressing what you would like to see in the Europe of the future, making explicit your hopes, aspirations, but also uncertainties.

The visions you and other citizens submit will be analysed and shared with EU policy makers. We will look for early signs of potentially important developments, persistent problems, novel and unexpected issues. These outcomes will serve to generate actual, future-oriented recommendations for EU action to build together the Europe that we want.

The future is a co-creation. Share your visions of tomorrow and join us in creating a narrative that inspires citizens, policymakers, and foresight experts:

• Write your future story and answer a few questions - share your preferred future with the rest of the world. Allow your vision to inspire others and fuel a meaningful conversation across Europe.
   
• Take a look at the #ourfutures dashboard - explore future visions shared by hundreds of contributors and check out stats and graphs that synthetise this rich content.

Read more on the project website.