This science for policy brief documents the process and findings of a horizon scanning exercise, part of a series under the FUTURINNOV (FUTURe-oriented detection and assessment of emerging technologies and break-through INNOVation) project, a collaboration between the European Innovation Council (EIC) and the Joint Research Centre (JRC), aiming to bolster the EIC's strategic intelligence through foresight and anticipatory methodologies.
The workshop, held on 13 November 2024, had as its primary goal the evaluation and prioritisation of trends and signals on emerging technologies and breakthrough innovation, across all technology readiness levels (TRLs), within the digital and network security domain. Signals for the workshop were gathered from experts, literature review, and text/data mining of patents, publications, and EU-funded projects.
These signals were then scrutinised for their significance to the field's future by a diverse group of sector experts which led to the identification of eight key topics: deepfake detection, quantum-resistant algorithms, interoperability for end-to-end encrypted messaging systems, privacy and security in virtual reality, false data injection attack detection, inter-satellite communication, privacy-preserving machine learning, and tiny solar-powered drones capable of near-perpetual flight.
Participants also highlighted various factors that could influence the development, adoption, and promotion of these emerging technologies including: tensions between privacy and security, emerging geopolitical threats, technological and regulatory enablers, trust and transparency, and the economic barriers that shape technological development and adoption.

This report documents the process and findings of a horizon scanning exercise, part of a series under the FUTURINNOV (FUTURe-oriented detection and assessment of emerging technologies and breakthrough INNOVation) project, a collaboration between the European Innovation Council (EIC) and the Joint Research Centre (JRC), aiming to bolster the EIC's strategic intelligence through foresight and anticipatory methodologies.
The workshop, held on 16 October 2024, had as its primary goal the evaluation and prioritisation of trends and signals on emerging technologies and breakthrough innovation, across all tech7-nology readiness levels (TRLs), within the broad Mobility domain, broken-down into four key areas: transport systems, networks and multimodality; automotive and roads; rail/freight and logistics and aviation and airports.
Signals for the workshop were gathered from experts, literature review, and text/data mining of patents, publications, and EU-funded projects. These signals were then scrutinised for their significance to the field's future by a diverse group of sector experts which led to the identification of 22 different key topics across the key areas above. These signals can be seen as hotspots of innovation that deserve the EIC’s attention for possible future support.
Participants also highlighted various factors that could influence the development, adoption, and promotion of these emerging technologies, which are presented in the report as drivers, enablers and barriers, and analysed specifically in each of the 4 key areas.

Help shape Europe’s future! 🛡️ 

To build the smart policies of tomorrow, we are counting on your insights for the 2025 Strategic Foresight Report. Together we can build a strong and resilient Europe that is fit for future challenges.
This goes beyond security - it’s about democracy, well-being, the economy, climate, competitiveness, sustainability, fairness between generations, and more.
We need your expertise now! The call for evidence is open for feedback on the citizens engagement platform until March 19th. 

👉 2025 Strategic Foresight Report 

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We’re in the process of shaping the EU Intergenerational Fairness Strategy, and we love YOUR input. Our Citizens' Engagement Platform is live and ready to hear from anyone who’s passionate about this critical issue.

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Join the conversation today: https://citizens.ec.europa.eu/intergenerational-fairness_en

Want to learn more about this project, the background and process, check out this blogpost  

This report documents the process and findings of a horizon scanning exercise, part of a series under
the FUTURINNOV (FUTURe-oriented detection and assessment of emerging technologies and break-
through INNOVation) project, a collaboration between the European Innovation Council (EIC) and the
Joint Research Centre (JRC), aiming to bolster the EIC's strategic intelligence through foresight and
anticipatory methodologies.

The workshop, held on 17 September 2024, had as its primary goal the evaluation and prioritisation
of trends and signals on emerging technologies and breakthrough innovation, across all technology
readiness levels (TRLs), within the EIC's Medical Imaging and AI portfolio.
Signals for the workshop were gathered from experts, literature review, and text/data mining of pa-
tents, publications, and EU-funded projects. These signals were then scrutinised for their significance
to the field's future by a diverse group of sector experts which led to the identification of eight key
topics: generative AI for healthcare; digital twins; multimodal data analysis; explainable AI in medical
imaging; application of AI to specific diseases/conditions; XR - augmented and virtual realities; tensor-
valued diffusion encoding, and AI-generated synthetic data for training AI. Furthermore, the workshop
identified additional wild cards with high novelty and disruptive potential such as: blockchain, edge
computing and differential privacy for secure, AI-driven medical imaging and collaborative healthcare
optimisation and quantum medical imaging.

Participants also highlighted various factors that could influence the development, adoption, and pro-
motion of these emerging technologies, which can be grouped under the following categories: Tech-
nological advancements and cross-sector applications; data infrastructure, AI models, and regulatory
frameworks; workforce, education and societal factors; clinical efficiency and patient outcomes; trust,
ethics, and AI adoption; financial pressures and industry investment in AI healthcare.

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. 

Earlier this fall, we invited foresight professionals to participate in the Nordic foresight survey. We wanted to find people interested in the creation of the Nordic Foresight Network, hear their thoughts and then start the formal creation. We received many replies. Thank you. Now it is time to present the results and take the next steps toward building collaboration.


Wecome to online event via MS Teams on February 6th from 10:30am to 12:00 EET where we will also get to discuss the formal creation: desired outcomes, ways of working etc.

Register here before February 3th and be part of shaping a collaborative future for foresight across the Nordics.

Feel free also to share the invitation with other foresight professionals.

You can read more about the Nordic foresight initiative here.

Looking forward to meet you!

Futures Finland and Futures Sweden

This is a call for professionals working in foresight in the Nordic countries to join the discussion and to contribute and influence the development and formation of the Nordic Foresight Network.

Successfully managing the green and digital transitions is a crucial factor that could increase the resilience and strategic autonomy of the EU and shape its future. Yet digitalisation of agriculture and rural areas raises vital questions about winners and losers, costs, benefits, and long term implications.


This foresight exercise explores the interplay between digital transition, policies and the resilience of the agricultural sector and rural areas, against the backdrop of potential disruptive and transformative changes. The report presents the outcomes of this exploration, proposing building blocks for an effective EU digital transition strategy for agriculture and rural areas supported by a hands-on policymaker’s toolkit

The blog post reveals the goals and steps of the foresight process and explains how visioning can support transitions. 

The ongoing inter-institutional European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS) Horizon Scanning activity is led since 2022 by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission and the European Parliamentary Research Services. An iterative methodology is rolled out at three successive levels, involving experts in a variety of policy areas and across several EU institutions.

Firstly, at the outset, this exercise builds a wider EU community engaged in horizon scanning. Their task at a first level has involved looking for future developments that sit at the margins of current thinking and planning, the so-called ‘signs of new’.

Secondly, sense-making workshops are organised on a monthly basis to consider through new lenses the identified ‘signs of new’ collected over the month and find links and interconnections among them across policies and sectors. The aim of these second-level workshops is thus to imagine possible impactful future developments, ‘signals of change’, using the collected signs as prompts.

Thirdly, future impact workshops, conceived as exploratory and prioritisation workshops are organised after conducting a few sense-making workshops. These workshops also include the participation of officials across all ESPAS institutions and aim to prioritise the three potentially most impactful ‘signals of change’ from among those identified at an earlier stage.
This careful process results in Horizon Scanning newsletters providing a broader perspective on policy making.

Read the latest newsletters here: Horizon Scanning | ESPAS

See also blog post describing the project and its role in EU : Spotting the Future: How Horizon Scanning can help shape EU Policy - European Commission (europa.eu) 

ESPAS Horizon Scanning feeds to other ESPAS projects. Read the Global Trends Reports published every five years.

Partners:

European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC)
European Parliamentary Research Services (EPRS)

We invited people across the EU to share their imagined futures. For this collection we, the European Commission’s Competence Centre on Foresight, used a narrative inquiry method. Instead of asking opinions about the future, we asked participants to share a story about their desirable future, followed by a few questions about that story, in order to more fully comprehend their thinking. In this process we were guided by Voices That Count.

In this article, we’ll take a look at the first 591 stories of people that participated so far, mostly from Greece and Slovenia, followed by Germany, Spain and Italy. Approximately half of them are students, and the other half mainly consists of employed people.