The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) is organizing a one-day Expert Group Meeting (EGM) on Strategic Technology Foresight for policy making on 18 June, 2025 in Vienna, Austria.

The EGM will be oriented towards drawing lessons from experience of, and identifying future trends in, the use of technology foresight for strategic decision making. It will focus on sustainable development, and particularly on transitions towards a Circular Economy (which features as an example of the most recent experience).

The present paper proposes a conceptual framework for elaborating and improving the application of foresight methods for policy making at multi-country level. Multi-country foresight (McF) shall be designed and used to analyse future-oriented common issues and goals, detect opportunities for cooperation and eventual conflicts of interest, identify complementary attributes, and promote supra-national or global facilities, infrastructures and services. Attention is given to participation mechanisms, allowing the implementation of common visions of the future by joining efforts, knowledge stocks, economic and political strengths, and improving international collaboration, strategic alliances and networking. The concept addresses two main development vectors: science, technology and innovation (STI) systems and productive chains. The core idea here is to use the foresight process as a tool for establishing multi-country STI policies and programs as well as policies and strategies for promoting global productive chains. The paper is particularly dedicated to developing countries and economies in transition.