This report of the European Foresight Platform (EFP) reports on a regional foresight programme carried out in 2011–2013 in the Antofagasta region of Chile (Dufva et al., 2016). Organised by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, the programme formed part of a broader joint project with the Chilean Mining Technological and Scientific Research Centre (CICITEM) that aimed at innovation-driven, sustainable economic development of the region. Its purposes were to improve foresight capability in the region, especially among the partner organisations, to enhance collaboration between industry, government and research organisations, and to support the creation of a strategic research agenda on a topic chosen by the partners. The time horizon was 2040.

The programme built on the Pact for Regional Development and Innovation signed by public and private actors in the Antofagasta region in March 2008, which sought economic growth and equality, better jobs and a path towards sustainable development. Chile looked to Finland as an example of how a resource-driven economy can become knowledge-driven when development strategies and policies are well chosen. Antofagasta is also an extreme risk area for ecological change: climate change and contamination from mining have had lasting effects on regional water supplies, and melting glaciers and the overuse of groundwater call for a significant redesign of water use.

The foresight activities had two parts. A three-day hands-on workshop in Antofagasta trained participants in futures thinking and in methods such as scenarios, roadmapping and Delphi, supported by a learning package with a glossary and a project website, and ended with group work on planning a foresight project for the region. On this basis, VTT and CICITEM selected the topic of a foresight pilot for its importance and relevance to different stakeholders. The pilot combined scenario and roadmapping work through a conference, two stakeholder workshops, a stakeholder survey, interviews with mining companies and a reflection discussion with CICITEM experts. VTT provided guidance and support, but the emphasis was on learning by doing for CICITEM researchers, who worked with researchers from local universities, representatives of local SMEs, government officials and mining companies.

Drawing on the process and the foresight literature, the authors developed a multi-layered framework for analysing the contributions of foresight (Dufva et al., 2015). At the landscape layer, foresight connects the region to the global context, helping participants to see Antofagasta as part of a larger system and to find its niche in global markets. At the innovation-system layer, it supports joint strategy formulation and a shared vision; stakeholder analysis helped to choose a suitably controversial topic that was interesting for all stakeholder groups and committed them to the process. At the organisational layer, the pilot generated new ideas about the role and mission of CICITEM, although not every researcher saw its benefit and some were reluctant to participate, which shows how a foresight process is entangled with organisational dynamics. At the individual layer, learning by doing gave participants experience in scoping, designing, implementing and documenting foresight; one CICITEM researcher reflected that he had learned to bring ideas 'high up in the sky down to earth'.

The report draws three implications for policy-making and practice. Foresight should be designed with multiple layers in mind, with particular attention to individuals, since changes in mindsets and worldviews through learning are what carry change into organisations and innovation systems. The nature of the effects varies between layers: knowledge produced weighs more at the landscape and innovation-system layers, whereas capabilities gained matter more at the organisational and individual layers. Finally, the layers can be used to structure the effects of foresight, showing that there is more to foresight than its immediate tangible outcomes and that a successful process can change the capacity of an organisation or a community to anticipate the future and, through that, contribute to regional transformation.

References

Dufva, M., Könnölä, T., & Koivisto, R. (2015). Multi-layered foresight: Lessons from regional foresight in Chile. Futures, 73, 100–111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2015.08.010 

Dufva, M., Könnölä, T., & Koivisto, R. (2016). Building regional foresight capability in Antofagasta, Chile (EFP Brief No. 260). European Foresight Platform. https://if-institute.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Building_Regional_Foresight_in_Antofagasta_Chile_EFP-Brief-No.260.pdf 

Between 2011 and 2013, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and the Chilean Mining Technological and Scientific Research Centre (CICITEM) carried out a regional foresight programme in Antofagasta, Chile's leading mining region, funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. The programme was part of a broader joint project to enhance innovation-driven, sustainable economic development in the region. It built on the 2008 Pact for Regional Development and Innovation in the Antofagasta Region and on Chile's interest in how Finland moved from a resource-driven to a knowledge-driven economy. The region also faces acute ecological pressures, not least on water supplies affected by climate change and mining.

The foresight activities pursued three aims: improving foresight capability in the region, especially among the partner organisations; strengthening collaboration between industry, government and research organisations; and supporting a strategic research agenda on a topic chosen by the partners. A three-day hands-on workshop in Antofagasta introduced futures thinking and methods such as scenarios, roadmapping and Delphi. A foresight pilot followed, combining scenario and roadmapping work through a conference, two stakeholder workshops, a stakeholder survey, interviews with mining companies and a final reflection session. VTT experts guided the process, but the emphasis was on learning by doing for CICITEM researchers, working alongside local universities, SMEs, government officials and mining companies, with a time horizon of 2040.

Reflecting on the process, the team developed a four-layer framework (landscape, innovation system, organisation and individual) for analysing how foresight contributes to new knowledge, capabilities and networks. The experience underlines that individuals are the key: changes in their mindsets and skills are what carry foresight into organisations and, ultimately, into regional transformation. The results are reported in EFP Brief No. 260 (Dufva, Könnölä & Koivisto, 2016) and in Dufva, M., Könnölä, T., & Koivisto, R. (2015). Multi-layered foresight: Lessons from regional foresight in Chile. Futures, 73, 100–111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2015.08.010 

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.

The Foresight Forum, established by the Finnish Ministry of Trade and Industry in mid-2004, served as the pilot that shaped the RPM Screening method. RPM Screening supported three expert groups working on nutrigenomics, health care and social services, and services for the provision of personal experiences such as tourism. Around 50 people were invited per theme, and parallel processes were run with postgraduate students in a course on decision analysis at Helsinki University of Technology.

In total, 166 innovation ideas were generated, commented on, revised and evaluated online, and the results were discussed in workshops. Several of the screened ideas were later taken up in the Delphi survey of a regional foresight project. The pilot showed how the solicitation of innovation ideas, rather than broad weak signals, can produce focused, comparable and action-oriented inputs while preserving diversity.

The Forest-Based Sector Technology Platform was one of the European Technology Platforms that brought together industry, research and public authorities to define a Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) for the sector. In Finland, a modular foresight process was organised to develop national priorities as Finland's contribution to the European agenda.

The process was based on RPM Screening. More than 100 researchers and business people across five parts of the industry proposed and scored 146 research themes in just seven weeks. Robust Portfolio Modelling identified promising themes, and participatory workshops discussed the results of the multi-criteria analyses. After a demonstration, all value-chain coordinators chose to use the method, and in their workshops it helped focus and catalyse discussion.

More information: http://sra.tkk.fi/ 

WoodWisdom-Net was one of the ERA-NETs supported by the European Union, to deepen collaboration between European funding organisations in wood material science, coordinate the use of research funds and promote the competitiveness and sustainability of the European forest cluster. Its 18 partners from eight countries (Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom) decided to launch a co-funded research programme in wood material science.

To shape the research agenda, a participatory bottom-up consultation was designed with the Systems Analysis Laboratory of Helsinki University of Technology. More than 400 researchers, industrialists and other stakeholders took part and proposed 317 research ideas, which were assessed online and prioritised with RPM Screening. Facilitated workshops discussed, validated and synthesised the results, and network analyses supported the identification of possible collaboration networks. The process ended with three groups of funders preparing joint calls for research proposals.

For more information: http://woodwisdom.tkk.fi/ 

Foresight activities have often supported priority-setting, networking and consensual vision-building. Drawing on complementary evolutionary perspectives, this article discusses these objectives from the viewpoint of diversity, which may be vital in contexts characterised by technological discontinuities and high uncertainties. Although the solicitation of weak signals has been widely advocated in such contexts, the solicitation of ideas for prospective innovations may result in more focused, action-oriented and comparable reflections of future developments.

Building on this argument, the article extends Robust Portfolio Modelling (RPM) into a collaborative foresight method called RPM Screening, with phases for the generation, revision, evaluation and analysis of innovation ideas. It reports experiences from a pilot project in which the method supported the work of the Foresight Forum of the Finnish Ministry of Trade and Industry.

The results of the pilot and other applications suggest that RPM Screening holds promise for fostering diversity in a variety of contexts, for instance in the development of shared research agendas and in the identification and assessment of technological risks.

Könnölä, T., Brummer, V., & Salo, A. (2007). Diversity in foresight: Insights from the fostering of innovation ideas. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 74(5), 608–626. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2006.11.003 

Although foresight has become increasingly relevant at the international level, little methodological attention has been given to the challenges that arise from the geographical dispersion of participants or from their national and regional idiosyncrasies. This article addresses these challenges in connection with coordination tools for the Open Method of Coordination, most notably ERA-NETs and European Technology Platforms, which the European Commission facilitates to contribute to the establishment of the European Research Area.

The successful management of these tools calls for multi-stakeholder processes, which place demands such as scalability, modularity and dependability on the design and deployment of foresight methodologies. The article reports experiences from a foresight process conducted in Finland to support the development of the Strategic Research Agenda of the Forest-Based Sector Technology Platform. The process was based on the RPM Screening methodology, which combined the Internet-based solicitation and assessment of research themes, the identification of promising themes through Robust Portfolio Modelling (RPM), and participatory workshops where the results of the multi-criteria analyses were discussed.

The encouraging results of the process and the broader potential of Internet-based decision support systems are discussed in view of European coordination tools.

Könnölä, T., Salo, A., & Brummer, V. (2011). Foresight for European coordination: Developing national priorities for the Forest-Based Sector Technology Platform. International Journal of Technology Management, 54(4). https://doi.org/10.1504/IJTM.2011.041583 

This article addresses the challenges of organising future-oriented consultation processes within European coordination tools for the Open Method of Coordination, such as ERA-NETs, which the European Commission promotes towards the establishment of the European Research Area. It reports experiences from a consultation process organised within WoodWisdom-Net (ERA-NET) to create an international research agenda, based on the long-term challenges of the European forest sector and on the identification of gaps and new opportunities in wood material science and engineering.

The process involved eighteen funding organisations from eight European countries and over 400 participants, most notably leading researchers and industrialists. It combined the Internet-based solicitation and assessment of research issues, Robust Portfolio Modelling (RPM) to identify promising research issues, and facilitated workshops where the results were discussed, validated and synthesised. Extensive network analyses supported the identification of possible collaboration networks and the development of joint calls for proposals.

Drawing on these experiences, the article discusses the broader potential of Internet-based decision support tools and participatory workshops in promoting foresight within ERA-NETs and other European coordination tools.

Brummer, V., Könnölä, T., & Salo, A. (2008). Foresight within ERA-NETs: Experiences from the preparation of an international research program. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 75(4), 483–495. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2008.02.005 

Supported by the European Union (EU), EIT Food is the world's largest food innovation community. Its mission is threefold: healthier lives through food, a net zero food system and a fair and resilient food system. Its Consumer Observatory is Europe's central hub for current and future consumer insights on agrifood topics. The general and consumer-specific trends, wild cards and weak signals identified by the Observatory provide the basis for this scenario work.

The work continues the 2024 exercise on futures of food consumption and the agrifood ecosystem in 2035 in Europe, this time with emphasis on technological advances, specifically on consumer acceptance of processed and functional food and of alternative proteins. In 2025, Insight Foresight Institute engaged the EIT Food community and a broader set of food and foresight experts in three online workshops. The participants made sense of how societal and consumer trends could interrelate, explored alternative scenarios of food consumption by 2035 and reflected on their implications for today's agrifood ecosystem and policy.

Scenarios are not predictions of the likely future, but they depict possible futures, even less likely ones. The narratives are written in the present tense, as if we were already in 2035. Two dimensions structured the work and ensured that each scenario was truly different:

• Acceptance of alternative proteins, covering both traditional alternative proteins for European markets (e.g. tofu, seitan, tempeh and molluscs) and novel ones (e.g. mycoprotein, cultivated meat, precision fermentation and insects).

• Acceptance of processed and functional food, which may be unhealthy or healthy, even highly functional with health benefits and tailored to individual needs.

Crossing the two dimensions gives four scenarios:

• Scenario 1: NATURAL AND LOCAL – Low in processing, low in alternatives

• Scenario 2: WHOLE-FOOD MOSAIC – Low in processing, high in alternatives

• Scenario 3: HIGH-TECH SAVOUR – High in processing, high in alternatives

• Scenario 4: CONVENIENT AND AFFORDABLE – High in processing, low in alternatives

Come join us for an exciting first ever international card game session of our project where we discover future sustainable transition pathways using a novel card game. The event is on 30.09 (Wednesday) in the library at 14.30. See you there!
How can we make sense of alternative futures at a time when sustainability transitions require changes across technologies, institutions and everyday practices? How can scenarios help us understand the dynamics of these changes and consider our capacity to shape them? This interactive workshop invites participants to explore these questions through a facilitated card game focused on the future of mobility systems.
Conducted by Johanna Vallistu, Joanna Raidal and Karmen Kütt-Ehala from Tallinn University of Technology, the workshop brings together two approaches: sustainability transitions thinking and foresight through scenario exploration. We combine them into a novel participatory method that connects alternative future worlds with the processes through which systems change. The card game provides a shared structure for exploring how emerging developments, established arrangements and wider societal pressures interact, and how these interactions can produce different mobility futures.
Mobility offers a concrete setting for this exploration. Moving towards sustainable mobility involves changes in infrastructure, public policy, business models, spatial planning, cultural expectations and everyday routines. Yet – multiple sustainability pathways are ahead of us at the moment. Participants will consider how different answers to these questions shape both transition processes and their possible outcomes.
The session is designed for participants interested in sustainability, mobility, governance, innovation or futures methods, with no prior experience of scenario work required. By the end, participants will have practised interpreting alternative futures, examining the systemic dynamics of transitions and discussing choices under uncertainty. The workshop also creates space to assess how a playful, structured format can support interdisciplinary dialogue and make complex questions about sustainability transitions more tangible, accessible and open to collective inquiry.

In our conference contribution we explore the idea of the generative ouroboros—the automated autophage—in application to foresight. Foresight is by definition a participatory activity and made by humans. In our futures exhibition we try out what happens if we make scenarios about AI with AI.

Together with the visitors to our exhibition, we want to find out how AI influences and changes foresight practice. Does AI increase the plausibility of future scenarios or decrease human expertise and participation?

Will AI render foresight practice irrelevant altogether—substituting for human expertise, imitating human intuition and making participation unnecessary? Or will AI help to improve foresight processes—through better design, more efficient organisation, or more creative future scenarios?

We invite you to visit our futures exhibition “Generative Ouroboros: A Futures Exhibition of AI-Generated Radical Alternatives of AI” taking place on 30th September, from 19:00 to 21:00 as a side event at the Futures4Europe conference and to explore not only AI generated future scenarios but to discuss together with us the role of AI in future foresight practice!

You can start by asking yourself whether this blog was written by a person or by an AI! And would you have interpreted it the same way, before asking yourself this question?

We look forward to seeing you at our AI futures exhibition and to discussing the automated autophage further with you! 

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.

I am an evaluation consultant based in Cambridge, UK. My work straddles the field of evaluation methodologies and foresight practices, including both participatory and hybrid human-AI informed approaches. For more information on my own background see https://richardjdavies.wordpress.com/

What happens when 10 people encounter the same unfinished future, imagine what comes next, and then meet one another's interpretations?

At Futures4Europe 2026 in Rome, Recognizing the Future in the Room invites conference attendees to explore this question alongside the participants in an ongoing Emotional Foresight experiment. The workshop will bring short films based on individual continuations into a shared space for viewing, reflection and discussion. 

You do not need to have taken part in the earlier phase to contribute your perspective.

This article shares the thinking behind the experiment and its early observations. The next part happens together in Rome.

Name: Recognizing the Future in the Room, Emotional Foresight through a Group-Based Adaptation of the Resonant Future Self Framework - Iuliana Adina Apostol 

Where: Sala Marconi

Date: 30.09.2026

Time: 17:30

The same film provides a shared starting point. It does not guarantee a shared future.

What this experiment examines

The experiment asks what changes when a person moves from watching a future to imagining how it continues, and then encounters someone else's version. It connects three things: emotional response, interpretation and perceived possibility for action.

This is the specific role of Emotional Foresight here. Participants encounter a possible future, attend to what it evokes, and explore what happens to that response as they give the future meaning. The analysis follows both their emotional ratings and their explanations of what changed. Hope, fear, uncertainty and resistance all matter; becoming more optimistic is not the criterion for success.

The pilot develops the Resonant Future Self Framework presented in Vienna in 2025 into a group format. Participants supply the interpretations and continuations that make the collective experiment possible.

Why begin with a film?

An earlier pilot at AIMEDIA 2026 in Nice used guided imagination without a seed film. Five researchers took part in individual sessions, then joined fifteen others in a workshop. The twenty researchers spent eight minutes with their eyes closed, listening to meditation music and imagining how it felt to inhabit 2032.

In the five individual accounts, familiar rooms and work routines predominated. AI appeared explicitly in only one scene. In the workshop accounts, family, homes and personal experiences became more prominent, while AI remained peripheral despite its prominence at the conference. These exploratory observations raised a design question: how can we help people imagine beyond an extension of their present?

Rome introduces an unfamiliar shared starting point. The seed film’s themes were drawn from responses to a three-minute poll circulated to all conference participants, grounding the scenario in the futures and emotions respondents described. The 90-second seed film, "Profile Source: Unresolved", depicts a world in which people receive periodically updated Future Profiles. Mara discovers that an apparently personal future image is appearing in other people's profiles too. The film ends without explaining why.

Participants are asked:

“What do you believe is happening, and what happens next?”

The film was designed to leave both the explanation and the emotional response open. The anomaly might evoke curiosity, unease, hope or several feelings at once. Participants can question the system, reinterpret what they have seen or introduce a possibility the film leaves unstated. Its imagery and sound still influence interpretation: ambiguity does not make the stimulus neutral.

Give imagination somewhere unfamiliar to begin, while leaving the meaning open.

What participants have reported so far

One participant described a shift from feeling “depressed and scared” to “optimistic and more at ease.” Another reported feeling “more empowered and hopeful.” A third explained what made a different response possible:

“Before I was hopeless and scared, now I feel hopeful because I tried to find a (literal) backdoor to make futures plural and unpredictable again.”

The backdoor matters. In this account, renewed hope is connected to an imagined opening in a system that had initially felt closed. The participant had introduced a way to act within the scenario.

This gives the experiment a concrete question to pursue: does constructing a continuation change what a person believes is possible, and how does that relate to what they feel?

A change in feeling becomes more informative when we can trace the change in meaning behind it.

The individual trajectories also differ. Some ratings move relatively little; others shift substantially. A group average cannot show all of those differences, and a stable emotional rating does not necessarily mean that nothing changed in a person's interpretation. The maps therefore retain individual responses alongside participants' words.

The Ambivalence Map: how do hope and fear move?

The map follows each participant's hope and fear ratings, both on a 0–6 scale, across the three stages. It allows us to examine changes in each emotion separately, including whether hope increases while fear remains present.

Hope can rise without fear disappearing. A single positivity score would miss that distinction.

The quadrant labels are shorthand. Low hope and low fear, labelled “emotionally distant,” cannot establish distance by themselves: someone could still feel strong curiosity or another emotion.

Young people should be able to shape their own future. That is the idea behind the Youth4Foresight (Y4F) toolkit, which was developed by DG International Partnerships (European Commission) to give youth practical methods to think beyond immediate challenges, explore long-term change, and identify concrete ways to act. This approach is closely linked to the EU Youth Action Plan (2022–2027), which aims to empower, engage and connect young people around the world. It also reflects a wider commitment to bringing longer-term and intergenerational perspectives into EU policymaking. By using foresight tools, youth can better understand emerging trends, imagine desirable futures, and translate those reflections into recommendations and action. This is exactly what the EU Delegation in Chile set out to do with “Voces del Futuro”, the EU’s Youth Sounding Board in the country.

Youth looking ahead

Created in 2025, Voces del Futuro brings together 21 young people from 13 regions of Chile, from as far north as Arica and as far south as Aysén. Since its launch, the group has participated in a range of activities with the EU Delegation, including thematic training, capacity-building, and work focused on sustainability, transparency and governance, gender equality, and other priority issues.

As the initiative moved into its second year, members wanted to take a step back and think more strategically about their own role. Which issues are most relevant for young people in Chile in the coming years? Where can the Youth Sounding Board bring the most value? And how can its contributions to the work of the EU in Chile become more structured, targeted and actionable?
The foresight exercise was designed to support precisely this process. Its objective was not only to strengthen futures-thinking skills, but also to help the group define the kind of influence it wants to have in Chile and clarify concrete next steps for collaboration with the EU Delegation.

Training youth to facilitate the process

An important part of the exercise was the preparation phase. Before the main session, a facilitation training was held for a small group of facilitators. This meant that the final workshop was led entirely by YSB members themselves.
This is an important element to the process, as training youth facilitators in partner countries helps build a pool of youth foresight practitioners who can potentially reuse these methods in other local, regional or community settings. It also strengthened participants’ ownership of the process from the outset.

Using the Three Horizons tool

The main workshop took place on 23 June 2026 and used the Three Horizons method from the Youth4Foresight toolkit. This method helps participants move between three perspectives:

- the future they would like to see,
- the current system and what is no longer fit for purpose,
- and the innovations and actions needed to bridge the gap.

Participants reflected on the future of the initiative itself: what role the YSB wants to play, how it wants to influence discussions in Chile, and what practical steps are needed to strengthen its impact and coordination with the EU Delegation.

The workshop took place in a hybrid format, with 7 participants in the room and 4 joining online. This made it the first successful hybrid Youth4Foresight session with a Youth Sounding Board in an EU Delegation. The experience suggests that hybrid delivery can work effectively for foresight exercises when technology, facilitation and participant engagement are strong and well managed.

Furthermore, in a country such as Chile, where events and activities are largely concentrated in the capital, Santiago, and where the country's long and narrow geography results in considerable distances between cities and regions, the hybrid format proved particularly effective in ensuring the broadest possible participation of YSB members from across the country. This approach also contributed to strengthening territorial inclusion by broadening participation beyond the capital and ensuring that the perspectives of young people from Chile's regions were better represented.

What did the workshop achieve?

The workshop aimed to create a structured space for reflection and helped participants move from general aspirations to more concrete thinking.

Several outcomes stood out:
- clearer reflection on influence: participants discussed what kind of role and influence they would like the YSB to have in Chile;
- greater ownership: youth facilitators led different parts of the process themselves, increasing confidence and participation;
- stronger internal coordination: the session helped identify practical steps for moving the initiative forward;
- useful input for the EU Delegation: the discussion clarified how the YSB could be more actively involved in EU activities in Chile.

Feedback from participants was highly positive. They appreciated being able to lead the conversation on the future of their own initiative. The exercise also helped reactivate the group and highlighted the importance of setting sufficiently concrete objectives to move beyond critique and towards action.

Otcomes and next steps

A roadmap for YSB Chile, based on this foresight exercise, represents the next step in the process. It will guide the group’s priorities and support a more strategic and structured relationship with the EU Delegation.
The application of the Y4F toolkit in this case shows the value of foresight as a tool which moves beyond imagining the long term but also functions as a practical tool for strengthening youth participation in the present. By combining structured reflection, youth-led facilitation and concrete follow-up, the workshop helped “Voces del Futuro” group take an important step towards defining its role, voice and influence more clearly.

Check out the Youth4Foresight toolkit and more use cases 

Queen’s University Belfast is delighted to launch the recruitment process for 20 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) as part of its Foresighters Doctoral Programme. We offer an exceptional opportunity for future research leaders to access an innovative programme of doctoral training at one of the UK’s leading universities. and engage in high impact, interdisciplinary research with a wide range of non-academic partners.

Read what harm the current chase for profit and growth ("invisible environmental designer") causes to many areas of our lives (https://www.rifs-potsdam.de/en/output/publications/2026/when-business-shapes-minds-and-cities-how-profit-centric-economies), why it's important to change the definition of business and what that actually means (https://www.rifs-potsdam.de/en/output/publications/2026/rehumanizing-profit-paradigm-intervention-regenerative-futures ), what is the underlying psychological condition for this redefinition to become the status-quo rather than the exception (https://www.rifs-potsdam.de/en/output/publications/2026/trauma-made-climate-change-possible-psychological-preconditions) and what are some tools to achieve that (https://www.rifs-potsdam.de/en/output/publications/2026/designing-agency-tools-regenerative-business-practice)

HorizonX is an integrated consulting ecosystem, combining expertise in strategy, foresight, innovation and leadership. We bring together decades of execution excellence and forward-looking intelligence, helping organizations prepare for the future and accelerate transformation in a sustainable way.

From our hubs in Vienna, London, and Bucharest, we leverage the combined expertise of a multidisciplinary network operating in over 20 countries. With a legacy of over 25 years through our founding partners, we deliver complex, large-scale transformations across the EMEA region.

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.

Mozambique is one of the youngest countries in the world, with more than 50% of the population under the age of 18. This youth bulge presents a unique demographic and economic opportunity but also places a significant strain on public services, particularly education. Facing challenges such as high unemployment, climate vulnerability, insecurity, and limited access to digital infrastructure, youth-led solutions are critical for building a “future-ready” country.

The European Union Delegation (EUD) established a Youth Sounding Board (YSB) in 2023 to get input on EU policies by young Mozambicans, as a part of the EU’s Youth Action Plan, and since then they have been consulting them regularly, including for the latest Annual Action Plan 2026.

In the context of the EU Global Gateway initiative and t he preparation for the EU's next long-term budget 2028-2034, the EU Delegation invited the YSB for a foresight exercises using the Youth4Foresight Toolkit to reflect on the long-term role of the youth and on the strategic priorities for energy, digital, and education in Mozambique. The exercise objectives were to strengthen the YSB members’ capacities and enhance their agency using foresight tools to critically engage with and influence policymaking processes, while providing insights for the upcoming EU programming in Mozambique. 

The Three Horizons Workshop

An online workshop for 20 YSB members, facilitated by the young people themselves, took place on 5 December 2025. The online format allowed for participation from YSB members from all over the country and both the preparation and the workshop were held in Portuguese, based on the Portuguese version of the Youth4Foresight Toolkit.

The Youth Sounding Board used the Three Horizons tool to struc ture their brainstorming in steps:

Horizon 3 (the desired future): participants imagined their inspirational future focusing on their aspired changes for the domains of energy, digital and education. 

Horizon 1 (the current system): groups travelled back to the present to identify "business as usual" patterns that are no longer fit for purpose.

Seeds of the Future: participants identified existing pioneers and grassroots initiatives that are already starting to bring their future vision to life.

Horizon 2 (the transition): groups brainstormed innovations and collaborations needed to remove blockers and transition from the current system to the desired future.

Action board: finally, considering the three horizons that they have outlined, the groups defined action statements for the YSB and recommendations for the EU Delegation. 

The Outcomes

Participants drafted a Declaration of Action and Commitments, outlining steps for current and future Youth Sounding Boards while providing recommendations for EU programming in energy, digital, and education sectors. Feedback was highly positive; members praised the tool's ability to foster structured creative thinking, with several planning to replicate the exercise in their local communities.

The Three Horizons tool successfully empowered youth by enhancing their futures thinking skills. The outcomes will now inform EU planning for Mozambique, allowing YSB members to actively architect their country's development. 

Facing uncertainty around climate change, AI, and job security, youth in Vietnam took part in two foresight workshops where they explored future trends, used strategic tools, and built skills to respond to challenges and shape long-term solutions. 

Why Futures Thinking Skills Matter for the Youth in Vietnam

Young people across Vietnam and Southeast Asia are navigating a future shaped by climate change, environmental degradation, and the rapid rise of automation and AI. Many are concerned about job security and feel uncertain about what lies ahead. There’s also a growing sense of mistrust toward institutions and doubts about whether a sustainable and just future is truly being safeguarded. In the face of these realities, learning how to think strategically about the future - and take action - is becoming an essential skillset for youth.

Exploring the Future Through Youth Collaboration & Foresight

With the support of the European Commission, the EU Delegation in Vietnam organised two online foresight workshops for the Vietnam Youth Advisory Board (VYAB). The sessions were held in September 2024 and each session lasted 1.5 hours, tailored to the participants’ availability across time zones.

The workshops brought together young people from VYAB and participants from neighboring countries to explore how futures thinking could help youth shape Southeast Asia’s future, especially around three EU priorities: the digital and circular economy, responsible entrepreneurship, and governance.

Using the Youth4Foresight toolkit, participants engaged in interactive sessions via Miro, an online collaboration tool that was well received. The energy was high, especially as youth connected across the region and from different professional backgrounds to share ideas and build new perspectives. 

Tools to Shift Mindsets and Spark Ideas

To kick off, participants explored three warm-up exercises: imagining the world in 2050, rating uncertainties about the future, and identifying trends likely to shape the region. These activities encouraged reflection and helped shift thinking from the present to long-term possibilities. The future holds many paths, but once we begin to recognize them and take action, we can shape those possibilities into something better. 

From Trends to Actions

The workshops introduced two main foresight tools: the Futures Wheel and 3 Horizons.

With the Futures Wheel, participants mapped the ripple effects of trends like digital transition, shifting global power dynamics, and resource scarcity. This helped them understand how one change could lead to another, revealing both risks and opportunities for regional action.

The 3 Horizons exercise invited participants to reflect on current realities, imagine more desirable futures, and propose ways to get there. Working in teams based on EU priorities, they turned broad visions into concrete ideas and short-term actions. 

Shared Futures, Shared Responsibility: A Key Takeaway

Futures thinking proved to be a powerful tool in times of uncertainty. It allowed participants to think more strategically, adaptively, and collaboratively. As they described: "It gave structure to our ideas. We felt more in control of shaping what’s next."

One of the strongest takeaways was the value of working together. By sharing ideas across the region and professional backgrounds, participants saw how collective thinking leads to more creative, inclusive, and actionable outcomes. It’s not just about imagining what’s coming - it’s about imagining it together.

Youth left the workshops with stronger skills, renewed motivation, and a clearer sense of how they can lead change in their communities and beyond.

Check out the toolkit and start building your future-thinking muscles! 

Lesotho faces some of the highest inequality levels in the world, leaving young people vulnerable to poverty, unemployment, and forced migration. Nearly a third of the population is under 24, yet youth voices can stay absent from decision-making. Cultural norms discourage open deliberation between young people and adults, leaving many — especially young herders, returnees from South Africa, and young women and girls — without opportunities to shape their futures.

The European Union, UNICEF, and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) launched the Youth Power Hub Programme in September 2024, with the goal of empowering young people as key players in governance and development at both local and national levels. To make the activities also future facing, the Youth4Foresight toolkit was used at the launch event. 

Training foresight facilitators

The toolkit, produced by European Commission, foresight experts and young people worldwide, offers a set of foresight techniques tailored for young people. Rather than relying on external foresight experts for a one-off workshop at the launch event, the EU and partners focused on embedding foresight within the Youth Power Hub itself. Local youth leaders participated in hybrid training on foresight fundamentals, specific tools, and facilitation skills.

These facilitators then led a futures workshop for 100 participants, exploring ‘The Future of Youth Advocacy in Lesotho.’ A key tool used, part of the Youth4Foresight toolkit, was Three Horizons , a structured approach to understanding systems change and transitions. 

Shifting mindsets, creating space for new ideas

For many participants, this was the first time they had been invited to systematically and critically think about the future — not as something distant and abstract, but as something they could actively shape. One facilitator described the experience as “a permission slip to imagine beyond the immediate struggles we are navigating.” Others found clarity in seeing how interconnected issues like climate resilience, youth unemployment, and political participation required systemic solutions. By framing discussions in terms of possible futures rather than fixed positions, it created space for conversations that might otherwise have been constrained by political or institutional barriers.

The workshop also empowered the young participants collectively convey their views on the Lesotho of the future to the decision makers present at the launch event, as a practical example of the dialogue that the Power Hub seeks to encourage.

What’s next for foresight in the Youth Power Hub?

Foresight is not a one-off intervention; it is a capability that grows over time. In a world where youth engagement is often reduced to consultation rather than real agency, the Youth4Foresight Toolkit offers young people a way to navigate uncertainty and define alternative futures they can build towards.

Spanning from 2024 to 2029, the Youth Power Hub in Lesotho will actively involve young people in decision-making to strengthen citizen participation and build stronger, more inclusive communities. The project supports the Youth Action Plan in European Union external action for 2022-2027 , the first ever policy framework for a strategic partnership with young people around the world. 

As the future grows more complex and uncertain, young people in Cambodia are learning to navigate it with curiosity, creativity, and clarity. In September 2024, the European Union Delegation (EUD) to Cambodia hosted a 2.5-hour online foresight workshop with its Youth Sounding Board (YSB), using the Youth4Foresight Toolkit. The session introduced strategic foresight tools to help youth anticipate change, collaborate on ideas, and shape sustainable futures. Using Miro, participants explored trends related to climate action, public service transformation, and governance. 

Why futures thinking matters

Cambodian youth are facing a web of intersecting challenges - from climate risks and water scarcity to inequities in education, healthcare, and digital access. Futures thinking offers them a way to not only react but lead proactively. The ability to think strategically about long-term possibilities, and act accordingly, is becoming a critical skill. 

Methodology

Prior to the session, youth had participated in an introductory workshop to familiarize themselves with key foresight concepts. From that, five trends emerged as most relevant to Cambodia: shifting geopolitical power, green and digital transitions, resource scarcity, new governance systems, and "Basic Services 3.0" (health, education, justice).

During the main session, participants selected resource scarcity and basic services as the two core trends to explore through the Futures Wheel. They mapped i mmediate and secondary impacts—such as income inequality, food insecurity, and weak infrastructure—then identified strategies like improved public-private partnerships, climate legislation, and innovation in resource use to build long-term resilience.

Next, youth moved into a Three Horizons exercise, which helped them ref lect on current realities, envision desirable futures, and chart a pathway of innovation and action between the two.

Horizon 1 highlighted structural challenges: limited access to clean water, energy, and internet; weak healthcare; unskilled labor; and poor transport. These reinforced the sense that "business as usual" is no longer sustainable.

Horizon 2 focused on transitional innovations already emerging. Youth emphasized the importance of public-private collaboration, digital literacy, green skills, and inclusive transport. Highly supported ideas included promoting green tourism, separate city bus lanes, and youth networks.

Horizon 3 captured bold visions for a more inclusive Cambodia—with universal access to clean water and air, waste-free cities, thriving green public spaces, and stronger digital governance. 

Participants also identified “Seeds of the Future”—existing initiatives like food banks, grassroots movements, and water treatment projects—that reflect Horizon 3 values but need scaling up.

Results & Discussion

Participants reported a mindset shift:

🗣️ “Before this, I didn’t give much thought to the future. Now, I find it essential for both my career and our community.”
🗣️ “Foresight helps me understand, predict, and align my work with long-term goals.”
🗣️ “The Three Horizons model was simple but powerful.”

While the session was well received, some challenges were noted:

- The online format limited peer-to-peer engagement.
- Some participants were hesitant to speak up; deeper facilitation could help.
- The single-session format was dense, splitting it into two shorter sessions may enhance reflection.
- Still, the session sparked high engagement and showed foresight’s value in building youth leadership and agency. 

Looking Ahead

This Cambodia workshop is part of the broader Youth4Foresight initiative supported by INTPA. It signals growing momentum for inclusive, future-focused engagement in EU partner countries. Cambodian youth aren’t just imagining the future - they’re preparing to lead it. 

The future of Angola and its youth are inextricably linked, as the country looks to capitalise on its demographic dividend, with over two-thirds of its population under the age of 25. The National Development Plan (2023-2027) prioritizes youth and human capital development to overcome barriers to long-term growth. The Youth4Foresight Toolkit, developed by Directorate General for International Partnerships of the European Commission, youth experts and EU Delegations worldwide proved to be instrumental in engaging young Angolans.

Engaging Young Voices for Change

The Youth Forum in Malanje (in July 2024) centred on "Youth participation in local governance and its impact on human capital development" and brought together 52 youth participants (including 24 women and some young mothers) from five municipalities in Malanje province. The event focused on helping youth better understand national policies and explore ways how they can contribute meaningfully to local governance.

The Youth Forum was one of the events organised under the EU funded “Support to Civil Society in Local Governance in Angola (PASCAL)” action, which aims to contribute to economic growth and social development through an inclusive, heterogeneous and effective participation of civil society in the governance process.

A key element of the forum was the application of structured long-term thinking by using the techniques and guidance from the Youth4Foresight Toolkit. Through Three Horizons methodology, young participants explored different future scenarios and created actionable recommendations.

This same tool was also applied during the Youth Forum in Huambo, another Angolan province, where it proved equally successful in engaging youth and fostering forward-looking dialogue. 

Foresight in Action: Three Horizons Methodology

The Three Horizons technique enabled participants to envision a preferred future for their region and Angola. Divided into groups, they assessed the present, identified trends and challenges, and developed transition ideas.

Discussions highlighted youth concerns: education, healthcare, and local economic development, alongside challenges like poor infrastructure, inadequate education quality and limited access to essential services.

Participants formulated key recommendations for policymakers, such as creating youth-centred programs, youth centres and vocational training facilities, and stressed the importance of policies that improve access to education, healthcare, and economic opportunities, particularly in rural areas.

Yong people found the forum groundbreaking and meaningful, with one stating, "We have never participated in such an experience," emphasizing the importance of youth voice. Young mothers expressed hope for their children's futures and appreciated meeting others outside their villages, reflecting the workshop's deep impact in fostering hope and agency and ownership over their future. 

The Impact of Youth4Foresight

The structured, adaptable methodologies of the toolkit encouraged inclusive discussions, giving youth a voice in shaping the strategies outlined in Angola’s National Development Plan 2023-2027. As a result, the recommendations produced in the workshop were directly relevant to local realities and can guide policymakers in enhancing youth participation and development.

Using foresight techniques empowered young people to reflect on their aspirations, critically analyse their present situation, and propose realistic solutions. The Youth4Foresight Toolkit has been successfully used in several countries by EU Delegations to engage with youth as a part of the Youth Action Plan in EU external action. 

The European Union Drugs Agency’s (EUDA) project “Synthetic Drugs 2050” addressed the growing uncertainty surrounding the future availability, spread, and use of synthetic drugs in Europe up to 2050. Synthetic drugs represent a rapidly evolving and systemic challenge for Europe, affecting public health, security, social cohesion, productivity, and overall wellbeing. Accelerated technological change, globalised supply chains, digitalisation, and increasingly blurred boundaries between legal, illegal, controlled, and uncontrolled substances further amplify the complexity of this issue.

The project applied a participatory strategic foresight approach to explore possible futures of synthetic drugs in Europe, moving beyond short-term monitoring and reactive policy responses. By systematically analysing global and regional drivers of change, emerging trends, weak signals, and deep uncertainties, the project built a shared understanding of how synthetic drugs markets, uses, and impacts may evolve in the medium- and long-term.

Through horizon scanning, trend analysis, scenario building, and sense-making activities, Synthetic Drugs 2050 supports EU-level and national stakeholders in anticipating risks, identifying opportunities, and strengthening policy resilience. The project explicitly linked foresight insights to strategic reflection, policy options, and research priorities, while embedding capacity-building components to enhance futures literacy and long-term preparedness within the EU drug policy ecosystem.

Objectives

The Synthetic Drugs 2050 project encompassed:

• A comprehensive, methodologically robust foresight study on the future availability and use of synthetic drugs in Europe up to 2050, exploring systemic drivers, uncertainties, and disruptive developments across social, technological, economic, environmental, political, legal, and ethical dimensions.
• Development of multiple plausible future scenarios describing how synthetic drugs diffusion in Europe could evolve by 2050, challenging prevailing assumptions and highlighting non-obvious risks and opportunities.
• Mapping of first-, second-, and third-order implications of synthetic drugs diffusion across Europe, identifying cause–effect pathways, time-bound consequences, and cross-sectoral impacts on health, public safety, governance, and society.
• Support for strategic preparedness and policy resilience by co-developing policy responses, strategic options, and research and innovation priorities at EU and national levels.
• Further development of strengthened foresight capacity and futures literacy within EUDA and its stakeholder community through learning-by-doing, participatory engagement, and the development of reusable foresight tools and frameworks.

Outputs

• Horizon scanning and trend analysis reports
• A set of four future scenarios for synthetic drugs in Europe by 2050
• A mapped system of time-bound implications and cause–effect pathways
• Policy responses and strategic recommendations
• A foresight manual and horizon scanning framework for future use

Find more information here: https://www.euda.europa.eu/index_en

The future of the European science system fundamentally depends on its researchers, and it is therefore essential to continue fostering attractive and sustainable research careers. Yet, a wide range of challenges is currently shaping both researchers’ professional trajectories and the broader EU research and innovation ecosystem.

Against this backdrop, DG Research & Innovation commissioned the Foresight On Demand team to conduct a study with the following objectives:

• Identify long term trends and disruptions affecting researchers’ careers in Europe.
• Develop plausible scenarios (to 2040) for the evolution of the EU’s researcher workforce.
• Propose policy pathways and identify challenges. The study will outline potential EU level policy approaches and governance reforms that could generate added value through coordinated action.

By informing policymaking, the study’s findings will aim to support greater coordination among Member States and strengthen the effectiveness of governance structures, funding mechanisms, and frameworks for research career development across Europe.

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.

Curious about how Europe’s demographic trends may transform the R&I landscape? 

On 10 December 2025, DG Research & Innovation hosted a hybrid event at the DG RTD Library in Brussels to present the Foresight-on-Demand (FOD) study: “The Demographic Turn: Actions Needed for Research, Innovation and Policy in Europe?”

FOD team members guided the audience through: 

• Background data showing a shrinking youth population, a declining workforce, and growing fiscal pressures on R&I funding. 
• A six-step Foresight Process combining horizon scanning, scenario-building, and windtunneling to anticipate future challenges. 
• Four Scenarios illustrating different pathways for Europe’s R&I system. 
• Strategic actions to protect fundamental research, foster lifelong learning, strengthen regional innovation, and build societal trust in technology.

👏 A big thank you to the panelists and speakers:

• Erik Canton (Deputy Head of Unit – Common R&I Strategy and Foresight Service, DG Research & Innovation)
• Nicola Francesco Dotti (Chief Economist Unit – Common R&I Strategy and Foresight Service, DG Research & Innovation)
• Brikena Xhomaqi (The Lifelong Learning Platform)
• Alex Petropoulos (Centre for Future Generations)
• Thomas Estermann (European University Association)
• Maciej Krysztofowicz (EU policy Lab, Joint Research Centres)
• Viola Peter (FOD team, Technopolis Group)
• Michal Nadziak (FOD team, 4CF)
• Katarzyna Figiel (FOD team, 4CF) 

And to all participants for an engaging exchange on how to build a more adaptive and resilient EU R&I system. 

In case you missed the event, you can find all the materials below.

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 Future of Sustainable Fashion event took place on Monday, April 14, 2025, at the MOMus - Museum of Modern Art in Thessaloniki, Greece. The workshop was implemented surrounded by the relative with the subject exhibition Collective Threads: Anna Andreeva at the Red Rose Silk Factory. This initiative was implemented by Helenos Consulting, a partner of the Eye of Europe Project, and aimed at engaging domain professionals, including foresight and fashion experts.

Europe’s Research and Innovation (R&I) system is entering a period of profound change. Demographic decline, rapid technological shifts, and constrained funding are beginning to alter student intake, the graduate pipeline, and research career prospects. By 2050, Europe’s population structure will look markedly different:

• The share of people aged 85+ will more than double, reaching around 10% of the population.
• The workforce is expected to shrink by 12%—equivalent to roughly 25 million people.
• The EU will have over 3 million fewer young people under 20, reducing the talent pool entering education and research.

These shifts raise fundamental questions for the future of Europe’s R&I landscape. To address them, DG Research & Innovation commmissioned a study “The Demographic Turn: Actions Needed for Research, Innovation and Policy in Europe”, which explores possible futures for Europe's R&I system and highlights how demographic pressure could become a driver of renewal and transformation. 

The study delivers:

• Background data showing a shrinking youth population, a declining workforce, and growing fiscal pressures on R&I funding.
• A six-step foresight approach combining horizon scanning, scenario-building, and windtunneling to anticipate future challenges.
• Four Scenarios illustrating different pathways for Europe’s R&I system.
• Strategic actions to protect fundamental research, enable lifelong learning, strengthen regional innovation, and build societal trust in technology

A comprehensive version of the study is available for download at the bottom the page. It presents a detailed overview of the methodological framework (including desk research, stakeholder mapping, workshop design, and data collection and analysis) along with the corresponding data and survey findings. 

The Signals Cards present emerging issues identified through the ESPAS Horizon Scanning activity. Apart from using them to inform the regular Horizon Scanning newsletters, they work well as conversation starters in (foresight) workshops to get people into the right headspace to think about and interact with the future. The Signal Cards are a fun and interactive tool ideal for workshops to expand thinking, foster imagination and explore different potential futures. 

How to use the cards

Instructions provided with the cards contain four different short exercises that can be used at the beginning of a workshop to broaden the thinking, spark imagination and encourage looking forward.

You can start your workshop with a quick exercise to

📌 find relevant signals of change for your topic

📌 challenge the common perspective

📌 explore different aspects of novelty or

📌 think about the culminating effects various signals might have together.

If you have more time, you can dive deeper into the signals and explore their potential impacts for example in the beginning of a (foresight) project. Participants can envision a world where some of the signals become reality and brainstorm what might be the consequences. This can help to pinpoint areas for further analysis. You can find detailed instructions for all these exercises in the Signal Cards file. Or feel free to create your own activities with the Signals Cards!

Download the Signal Cards, follow the enclosed detailed instructions and see how they can transform your next workshop.

Print the chosen cards (ideally on thick paper, 2 pages per A4 sheet to get A5 sized cards) or paste them as pictures to a digital platform for online workshops.

Read more from the blog.

This report presents an analysis on the topic of resilience of the stories selected from the #OurFutures initiative. These stories — envisioning life in 2040 — provide unique insights into how people across the EU perceive Europe's capacity to remain resilient amid multiple transformative challenges.
This thematic analysis supports the European Commission’s 2025 Strategic Foresight Report on resilience . It therefore focuses on stories that explicitly reference the role and position of Europe, its institutions, and its collective future.

The report identifies eight major challenge areas shaping perceptions of Europe's resilience, with climate and democracy emerging as particularly cross-cutting themes. The analysis also explores the optimistic and pessimistic visions citizens express about Europe’s future – on the one hand those describing a Europe that has responded to its challenges through transformation, and on the other, those that foresee institutional collapse, authoritarian drift, climate catastrophe, and social fragmentation. Five key tensions structure the debates within the stories, revealing the difficult trade-offs that Europe must navigate to remain resilient. Potential shocks that citizens anticipate underscore where citizens feel Europe is most vulnerable and where resilience must be strengthened.

Despite their concerns, storytellers propose a wide range of concrete strategies to enhance European resilience, many of them emphasizing systemic reform and long-term thinking. The report synthesizes citizens’ views on Europe’s role in the world.

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/ 

EIT Food Consumer Observatory is organising online workshops focusing on the consumer acceptance of functional and processed food and alternative proteins by 2035. The online workshops are organised on September 11 and 18, from 10 to 13 hours CET. This is an open invitation to participate. It is free, just write us to consider your participation and learn more about the process: info@if-institute.org

What to expect in the workshops:
Before the workshops: Read this brief background document to familiarise yourself with the approach and prepare for the workshops.
During the workshops: Discuss and participate by writing your comments via MS Teams chat and the Miro board sticky notes. Note that the workshops will be recorded to enable automated transcription in Teams.
After the workshops: The expert team will develop scenario narratives, which are presented and discussed further in another workshop on November 4th 10-13 CET, which allows the reflection of scenario implications for the current agrifood ecosystem. Finally, a policy brief will be published end of the year.

Last year, we did a similar process focusing on the future of new food products and experiences and One Health. More information here:
https://if-institute.org/futures-of-food-consumption-in-2035-in-europe-on-sustainability-health-and-technology 

A new initiative to support EU Member States in embedding long-term, anticipatory thinking into decision-making at every level—national, regional, and local. 

Future-Oriented Policymaking is an ongoing joint project by the European Commission Directorate-General for Structural Reform Support (DG REFORM) and the EU Policy Lab of the Joint Research Centre. The project supports foresight capacity building in EU Member States and integrating future-oriented thinking into decision-making.

The project supports foresight capacity building in EU Member States and integrating future-oriented thinking into decision-making.

Get involved!
The success of the project depends on the active participation of policymakers, practitioners, and citizens. Whether you are an experienced foresight practitioner or entirely new to the concept, we welcome your insights.

Share ideas, take our survey*: Help us understand your needs and shape the final deliverables. What has worked well in your context? What challenges have you faced? How can we make foresight more relevant to your needs? > Survey

Join our beta testing group**: Be among the first to try out our new toolkit and training materials. Your feedback will help us refine and improve these resources for everyone (fill in the survey and click join beta testing group at the end).

* Preferably before 12 September 2025 to make full use of your ideas.

* *Places for beta testing are limited, and we are committed to working with a diverse range of partners. If you are interested, please fill in the survey by 5/09/2025 . We will confirm participation after that date. Institutionalising future-oriented policymaking is a collective journey, which requires commitment, curiosity, and courage: from leaders, civil servants, and citizens alike. Let’s work together to make foresight a cornerstone of European policymaking. 

Stay tuned for updates and don’t hesitate to reach out if you’d like to contribute to this exciting initiative.

> Future-oriented Policymaking 

Harnessing Foresight for Future-Oriented Policymaking is an ongoing joint project by the European Commission Secretary General Reform and Investment Task Force (SG REFORM) and the EU Policy Lab of the Joint Research Centre .

The current world - defined by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA), requires decisionmakers to sharpen their capacity to look ahead, think and work in a proactive, systemic and creative way, amongst others by using foresight.

The project supports foresight capacity building in EU Member States and integrating future-oriented thinking into decision-making. 

It underpins the implementation of the ComPAct - Enhancing the European Administrative Space and its ʺPublic Administration Skills Agendaʺ pillar. Through this pillar the Commission aims to support EU Member States in their efforts to build resilient, attractive, transparent, and high performing public administrations by equipping them with a wide range of tools to upskill and reskill their workforce.

Future-oriented Policymaking - project actions

• Create tools for capacity building of Member States’ public administrations at national, regional and local levels for future-oriented policymaking
• Stimulate dynamic, enhanced cooperation among public administrations on integrating foresight in policymaking
• Promote a future-oriented policymaking culture in the EU and its Member State

What to expect
By the end of the project, policymakers and public servants across Europe can expect a suite of resources designed to make future-oriented policymaking accessible and actionable: 

- Online training series for policymakers in EU Member States 

- Adap table pathways toolkit to embed foresight in policymaking

- Community building elements

How can you get involved?
The success of the project depends on the active participation of policymakers, practitioners, and citizens. Whether you are an experienced foresight practitioner or entirely new to the concept, we welcome your insights.

Take our survey: Help us under stand your needs and shape the final deliverables.

Join our beta-testing group: Be among the first to try out our new toolkit and training materials (fill in the survey and click join beta testing group at the end).

Read more on this blogpost
Stay updated and follow the project page.   

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.

The Bureau für Zeitgeschehen (BfZ), based in Frankfurt am Main, is a strategic foresight consultancy that advises decision-makers in politics, business and associations on geopolitical risks and opportunities – with the aim of making their strategies future-proof despite growing disorder and uncertainty. The Bureau helps its clients navigate the terra incognita of an increasingly unpredictable, complex and highly interconnected world. It sensitizes its public and private sector clients to the key drivers of societal change and helps to develop skills and capacities in good time. The BfZ has in-depth expertise in foreign, security and development policy. Its core topics are the impact of (global) power shifts and global trends on German and European policy and business, energy and resource security, climate change, the living environment and economic development.

The BfZ works on four continents (Europe and North America, Africa and the MENA region, Asia); Its clients include the German Federal Chancellery, the German Foreign Office, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, EU institutions and agencies, NATO, UN agencies (UNSC, UNEP, UNICEF, UNDP), the Global Crop Diversity Trust, the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ), international foundations (George Soros, Bertelsmann, Bosch, Konrad Adenauer Foundation), Amnesty International, the Federation of German Industries (BDI), the German Energy Agency (dena), the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), etc.

The BfZ cooperates closely with internationally renowned think tanks such as the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF), the Atlantic Council and the Stimson Center, the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC, before the war in Ukraine), the European Leadership Network, and think tanks in Africa (IREN, ISS) and Asia (especially in India).

Supported by the European Union (EU), EIT Food is the world’s largest food innovation community – its mission is three-fold aiming at healthier lives through food, a net zero food system and reducing risk for a fair and resilient food system. Its Consumer Observatory is Europe’s central hub for current and future consumer insights on agrifood topics. The observatory has identified general and consumer-specific trends and other driving forces, which were used as a starting point for this scenario work. During the summer and autumn 2024, Insight Foresight Institute organised online workshops to develop four alternative future scenarios and their implications to stakeholders.

Scenarios are not predictions of the likely future, but they depict possible futures. Exploring alternative scenarios helps to expand one’s own span of observation further towards the future, and to possible threats and opportunities that otherwise might not be in the immediate attention span, or just being excluded for being unlikely. While the scenarios often consist of a possible future state and the pathway from the present to that future, in this case, our narratives of the future (written in the present tense, as if we were already in the future) describe each a different day in 2035.

The work focuses on the futures of food consumption and the agrifood ecosystem in 2035 in Europe, specifically with regards to emerging technological opportunities for new products and retail experiences as well as to (un)sustainable and (un)healthy consumer choices. These dimensions provided a structure that ensured that each of the four scenarios was truly different:
• Scenario A: GREEN AND ME - A Day in European High-Tech Food Ecosystem in 2035
• Scenario B: FRUGAL AND LOCAL - A Day in European Localized Food Sector Driven by Community Values in 2035
• Scenario C: COST AND CONTROL - A Day in European Decayed Food Ecosystem Focused on Industrial Efficiency in 2035
• Scenario D: HIGHS AND LOWS - A Day in European Unequal High-Tech Food Ecosystem in 2035.
We conclude the paper by reflecting on the scenarios and their implications to decision-makers today.

What was the challenge?

The Research Council of Norway (RCN) identified five strategic areas in pursuit of ground-breaking research, radical innovation and sustainable development. RCN required a robust evidence base to help develop long-term, priority missions to help solve one or more societal challenges, as well as underpinning structural measures of the research environment in Norway. The five strategic areas include: Oceans; Green transition; Health and welfare; Cohesion and globalisation; and Technology and digitalisation.

How did we approach it?

We adopted a mixed method, participatory approach involving a variety of research tools such as trend analyses, literature reviews, stakeholder interviews, focus groups, crowdsourcing ideas from experts, a survey of the public, future scenario analyses and workshops.

The core foresight work allowed us to examine what might happen in the next ten years in the different strategic areas and wider R&I system in Norway. Scenarios of future states were used as the basis for workshop discussions to stress test potential missions and structural measures that the RCN could consider developing and implementing in the future.

What was the outcome or impact of the work?

Extensive findings from this research were published in a series of nine reports. The research was cited as evidence in the RCN’s input to the 2022 revision of the Long-Term Plan for Research and Higher Education 2019–2028, which specifies the Norwegian government’s ambitions, key objectives and priority areas for research and higher education.

The study also helped inform the RCN’s internal decision making, strategies and organisational activities. In addition, a summary of the findings and proposals was presented to the relevant Norwegian minister.

Project webpage: https://www.rand.org/randeurope/research/projects/2021/future-research-innovation-norway.html 

Research outputs:

• Summary report: https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RRA900/RRA966-1/RAND_RRA966-1.pdf 
• Addressing future societal challenges in Norway: Detailed methodology report: https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RRA900/RRA966-1/RAND_RRA966-2.pdf
• A summary of potential cross-cutting missions to address future societal challenges in Norway: https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RRA900/RRA966-1/RAND_RRA966-3.pdf
  
  Structural measures to develop a resilient research and innovation environment in Norway: https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RRA900/RRA966-1/RAND_RRA966-4.pdf
  
  Health and welfare: An analysis of trends, future directions and potential missions to address societal challenges in Norway: https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RRA900/RRA966-1/RAND_RRA966-5.pdf
  
  Oceans: An analysis of trends, future directions and potential missions to address societal challenges in Norway: https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RRA900/RRA966-1/RAND_RRA966-6.pdf
  
  Technology and digitalisation: An analysis of trends, future directions and potential missions to address societal challenges in Norway: https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RRA900/RRA966-1/RAND_RRA966-7.pdf
  
  Cohesion and globalisation: An analysis of trends, future directions and potential missions to address societal challenges in Norway: https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RRA900/RRA966-1/RAND_RRA966-8.pdf
  
  Green transition: An analysis of trends, future directions and potential missions to address societal challenges in Norway: https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RRA900/RRA966-1/RAND_RRA966-9.pdf

We empower you to work with the futures. Our ideas show organizations how to deal with terms like weak signals, trends or white spots, and at the same time energizing to position themselves. We like discussing new developments and trends, with their respective effects on the organization, in order to design frameworks for actions and strenghten the matching future-attitude and accompanying measures.Schaltzeit has successfully provided consulting and operational services within the areas of foresight, ideation, experiences, software and design, to organizations in sectors such as telecommunication, automotive, biotechnology, software development, medicine, cosmetics and others.
We ignite and accompany you on your way to success.
Schaltzeit fills gaps, optimizes processes and forms the link between actors and processes in order to make results transparent and usable and sustainably establishes future-oriented thinking and acting.

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

FOODCITYBOOST is a trailblazing project that will help develop the foundations for turning urban jungles into lush, green, food-producing hubs! We imagine cities where rooftops, balconies, and even vertical spaces are bursting with greenery and fresh produce. This is the future that FOODCITYBOOST is planting seeds for, whilst tackling the major contemporary difficulties such as: climate change, biodiversity loss, and the great divide between urban, peri-urban, and rural areas.

CARMINE’s overarching goal is to help the metropolitan communities become more climate resilient, by co-producing knowledge-based tools, strategies and plans for enhanced adaptation and mitigation actions addressing the Charter of the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change by 2030.

To achieve this goal, focusing on a 2030-2035 timeframe and with longer perspectives up to 2050, CARMINE aims to:

✅ Co-create and co-develop decision-support services and guidelines for enhanced resilience and adaptive capacity, including early warning and disaster risk management systems;

✅ Cooperate closely with local to regional communities (stakeholders and users), decision and policy-makers (local authorities) to co-develop cross-sectoral frameworks for adaptation and mitigation actions;

✅ Deliver science-based R&I roadmaps for multi-level climate governance supporting local adaptation assessments and plans.

Obj. 1. Review the available resources, tools, practices, policies, and methodologies, and identify the gaps, challenges and barriers that hamper the successful advance of the resilience pathways in the Metropolitan Regions of Europe.

Obj. 2. Develop high-resolution risk assessment models linking climate, earth system processes, and socio-economic drivers, for enriched data fusion and effectiveness of adaptation and mitigation actions in the Metropolitan Regions of Europe.

Obj. 3. Co-produce a climate adaptation and resilience framework combining Living Labs and Digital Twins approaches that supports decision making processes for resilience and disaster risk management in the Metropolitan Regions of Europe, including Nature-Based Solutions.

Obj. 4 Provide state-of-the-art Impact-based Decision Support Services blending climate and environmental data into socioeconomic impact and risk assessments, for user-friendly access to high spatially resolved modelling outputs in support of local adaptation assessments and plans.

Obj. 5 Conduct the participatory development of better coordinated and impactful modelling and risk assessment, in support of roadmaps of R&I priorities on adaptation, informed policies, and cross-sectoral plans towards the 2030-2035 timeframe and beyond (i.e., 2050).

CARMINE establishes synergies and complementarities with ongoing projects funded under the calls HORIZON-MISS-2021-CLIMA-02-03: ICARIA, MIRA CA, and R ISKADAPT, and HO RIZON-MISS-2021-CLIMA-02-01: CLIMAAX. 

This study involves the execution of a comprehensive, two-year foresight exercise on next-generation online platforms. Using participatory foresight techniques, the study team will analyse the potential impacts of the rapidly evolving platform ecosystem on the European Union's society and economy. The study aims to enhance the Commission's understanding of the potential challenges and opportunities associated with the ongoing platformisation trends in various policy areas. In addition, the study will contribute to strengthening the European Commission's capabilities in using participatory foresight techniques to inform policymaking in the future. The study comprises 10 policy papers delivered in three sets. The study will harness the participatory foresight methodology to achieve its objectives. Participatory foresight is a technique focused on exploring different future scenarios and their impacts while actively engaging stakeholders in co-creation and co-assessment exercises. For each set of policy papers, the foresight process will include analysis and synthesis of pertinent technological and societal trends, assessment of various wildcards and the definition of the main scenarios and impacts. Some of the methods used in the study include visioning, roadmapping, backcasting and scenario analysis. For each set of policy papers, the study team will organise two participatory foresight meetings with a wide variety of stakeholders.

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

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

📣 YouthDecide 2040 is looking for participants to join our regional workshops and co-create the future of European democracy!

Be part of a one-and-a-half-day immersive workshop where diverse voices come together to imagine and shape resilient, thriving European democracies.

🗣️💬 Through creative, participatory foresight activities, we will explore different visions of democracy in 2040—your perspective matters!

🧭 The wider, the better
Are you a European resident over 18? This call is for you!
We're fostering intergenerational discussions on the future of European democracy, centring youth voices (18-34).

🔓 The call for applications will remain open through May 2025. 

FutureCraft project aims to foster entrepreneurial mindsets and enhance the capacity of ecosystem enablers while promoting futures literacy and global collaboration.

The project aspires to cultivate innovative thinking, provide effective guidance to entrepreneurs, and increase awareness of future trends and sustainability challenges. Ultimately, the goal is to drive economic growth by developing vibrant and sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems, fostering prosperity and innovation.

The project is funded by EU program Erasmus+ during 12/2024–11/2026.

https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/projects/search/details/2024-1-TR01-KA220-ADU-000251939

Fremtenkt is a non-profit futures agency.

That means we can predict the future! Just kidding.

But we can teach you to use your own and others' images of the future as a tool – a tool to explore, challenge and expand the possibilities you see for changing the world for the better.

Along the way, you'll develop Futures Literacy - the UNESCO-recognized capability that enhances your creative problem-solving and makes you more resilient in the face of the unexpected.

Delivering solutions for a more sustainable future

ISINNOVA provides research services and strategic consultancy to public and private actors pursuing sustainable visions, solutions, and policies.

Five Pillars of Our Approach

1. Anticipate – Apply systems thinking and foresight methodologies to identify emerging challenges, reveal interdependencies, and inform proactive, future-resilient strategies.

2. Integrate – Connect disciplines, sectors, and knowledge systems to foster richer analysis and tackle complex challenges holistically.

3. Align – Ensure research, innovation, and governance processes reflect the values, priorities, and needs of society through ethical, participatory, and responsible approaches.

4. Co-create – Engage diverse stakeholders — researchers, policymakers, citizens, and industry — in collaborative processes to design solutions that are inclusive, relevant, and impactful.

5. Transform – Drive systemic change by translating shared knowledge and co-created solutions into sustainable, scalable actions, supported by continuous assessment to ensure applicability, effectiveness, and long-term value.

Track Record

• 50+ years in the game (and counting).
• Involved in over 130 research projects (ISINNOVA designs, develops, and manages sector-specific & cross-sector EU and global projects)
• 15 staff members with multidisciplinary backgrounds (engineering, statistics, economics, politics, law, social sciences, computer science and media studies)