Implementing foresight study results in policy action and measures: EU experiences

Abstract

This chapter considers the development of European Union strategic foresight activity, This activity in particular the role of the expert groups in helping to set European vision and policy and to frame the strategic, long-term research agenda has had clear impacts. Key insights and messages are often picked up from one expert group to the next and from one policy domain to another, creating significant spin-off effects. Example of influential approaches include the rupture/disruption theme (picked up by the first SCAR foresight group and elaborated in other European exercises), and the grand challenge approach (flagged by the ERA Rationales group and taken up in the design of Horizon 2020). Transformation by design using policy shocks is being increasingly implemented at European and national level through the use of horizon scanning and detection of wild cards and weak signals of major disruptions underway or on the horizon. FP7 Blue Skies projects focused on refining the tools for identifying wilds cards and weak signals, and on reflecting on their significance in relation to addressing European grand societal challenges. These projects highlighted the need for an ongoing facility at European level to map and detect signals and to understand and analyse the interactions and impacts of such trends and drivers in the European and global context. The establishment of a centralised foresight and scanning facility with the Joint Research Centre central offices in Brussels, and of the European Forum on Forward-looking Activities, can be seen as significant steps that build on the earlier Foresight studies.