Category: Foresight

Embracing Global Foresight. Scaling up tools and methods

In the dynamic field of global foresight and horizon scanning, my journey unfolds through the lens of regional workshops. Building on the experience of supporting the development of the EU Strategic Foresight Report 2023 by enabling an interplay between sustainability transitions and foresight, we have developed a methodology that resonates at the global level. The UNEP Foresight team, together with the EU Policy Lab at the Joint Research Centre, the International Science Council, GRID-Warsaw and the Copernicus Science Centre, held a regional European Foresight workshop on 24-25 October to explore scenarios for planetary health and human well-being. Six workshops will be held in each of the UNEP regions in 2023.

My contribution does not end here but is a commitment to methodological development. I am now supporting each region to adapt the methodology to their own context. Each workshop becomes a melting pot for ideas converging into a powerful elixir of foresight. By incorporating cultural nuances into the fabric of the regional workshops, I am challenging myself to redefine how foresight is perceived and embraced. It’s about turning challenges into stepping stones and transforming uncertainties into opportunities.

The results of the foresight exercise will feed into The UNEP Global Report to be published in 2024. This report will be supplemented by region-specific information from the individual regional workshops. We also expect the lessons learnt from this cross-regional foresight will lead to new scientific insights and actionable knowledge to feed into the Future Summit in September 2024.

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Strategic Foresight for Regions and Cities

A dynamic participatory lab session during the European Week of Regions and Cities 2023 where European Commission European Committee of the Regions EURADA – European Association of Development Agencies EU Science, Research and Innovation encourage participants to dive deep into “Strategic #Foresight for Regions and Cities” – a pivotal discussion for unravelling the EU actors’ capacity to act on #transformative #change.

Helsinki-Uusimaa Region

Sardinia

Hauts-de-France

Ostbelgien

Partnerships for Regional Innovation

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Towards a fair and sustainable Europe 2050: Social and economic choices in sustainability transitions

The study explores the interplay between #sustainability #transitions and #foresight to highlight the relevance of the agency of EU actors in shaping Europe’s sustainable future.
As part of an exceptional team including experts from multiple organisations, we delved into the complexities of sustainability transitions, examining how foresight methodologies and evidence-based approaches can guide policy decisions.
This report underscores the urgent need for #transformative policies prioritising sustainability, social equity, and economic prosperity. By leveraging #science and #research, we can drive informed #decisionmaking processes that address the challenges of today and pave the way for a sustainable #Europe by 2050.
I am immensely proud to have contributed to this report, which serves as #actionable  #knowledge for policymakers, researchers, and stakeholders invested in sustainable development.

Download the report Here

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Empowering Tomorrow: A Leap into Anticipatory Innovation Governance

In the dynamic innovation landscape, I embarked with the OECD-OPSI team on a transformative journey to co-create a methodology for anticipatory innovation governance. This collaborative effort was more than a task; it was a commitment to reinforce the collaboration between the EU Policy Lab at the Joint Research Centre and the OECD-OPSI to explore new ways to help multiple actors embrace a discussion about the future as part of a learning process.

My contribution aimed not only to streamline methodologies but also to ignite a collective interest in navigating the uncharted territory of co-creating anticipatory innovation capacity.

In this journey, I have supported the team in designing workshops and processes, contributed to the insights gathered in the OECD report The Public Governance of Anticipatory Innovation Ecosystems in Latvia and brought emerging questions about the role of co-creation in developing anticipatory capacity in academic forums such as the 2023 EU-SPRI annual conference and the 62 ERSA conference.

We are now working together in the LIMinal project to turn those lessons learned into actionable knowledge to build anticipatory capacity but also better understand how that capacity can be better distributed among multiple actors across the innovation ecosystem and, in doing so, enable the capacity to act to face together the future.

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A Game for All Seasons: Lessons and Learnings from the JRC’s Scenario Exploration System

In this paper, I explored with several researchers and practitioners the application of foresight methods in a diverse collection of settings.

The European Commission Joint Research Centre’s (JRC) Scenario Exploration System (SES) is a foresight gaming system developed to facilitate the application of futures thinking to policy-making. It was originally geared at engaging EU policy-makers with scenarios in a facilitated process with a low learning curve.

Specifically, the SES was designed to help participants, in less than three hours, to engage in systemic thinking with a long-term perspective and to explore alternative futures on specific issues and themes. When applied in various contexts, the SES proved to have a broader range of applications, which led to communities of practice emerging around the tool.

One of the cases included in the paper is the application of SES in the EIT Climate-KIC project Climate Mitigation Fund where we addressed the challenges of facilitating a horizontal problem-solving process by combining knowledge from public authorities, SMEs and experts to redefine the socio-technical system in which regional climate funds can operate efficiently. Workshops in Bologna and Frankfurt applied visual tools created by the Transitions Hub for easing negotiation of complex issues.

Link to the paper

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