The second Mutual Learning Event (MLE) took place online on September 26, 2024, as part of Eye of Europe, a Horizon Europe project which aims to enhance the integration of foresight practices into Research and Innovation (R&I) policy-making across Europe and to nurture a vibrant, cohesive R&I foresight community that contributes significantly, as a collective intelligence, to shaping and guiding policy decisions.

The online MLE brought together fifty participants from diverse stakeholder groups: Eye of Europe partner organizations, the European Commission, R&I funding agencies, representatives of governmental bodies. The event, organized by Technology Centre Prague (TC), focused on the topic of policy oriented communication of foresight results. Group and plenary discussions in three interactive sessions were framed by expert presentations showcasing diverse practices in the application and communication of foresight.

Presentations:

• Michal Pazour (TC Prague, Czech Republic) introduced the Eye of Europe project and the context of this second Mutual Learning Event.
• Moderator of the event Lenka Hebáková (TC Prague, Czech Republic) followed up with an introduction to the event’s aims and agenda.
• Mikko Dufva (SITRA, Finland) – “Communicating foresight. From knowing it all to empowering change”. The presentation included three case studies: SITRA’s decade long experience with megatrends as a platform for dialogue, their work on weak signals as an invitation to broaden futures thinking in a “what if?” spirit and, finally, their efforts to empower others to define futures bottom-up, through small funding to diverse teams across Finland.
• “Communicating foresight in the European Commission” presented by Maia Knutti and Teodora Garbovan (EU Policy Lab, European Commission) brought insights into how, in the European Commission context, foresight is employed and linked with the policy cycle. Examples covered foresight content (e.g. Strategic Foresight Reports) and engagement tools (e.g. megatrends hub, scenario exploration system) that are serving different stakeholder groups across multiple channels.
• Bianca Dragomir (Institutul de Prospectiva, Romania) discussed a case study on embedding foresight into policy making in the context of developing the Strategy for Fishing and Aquaculture 2035 in Romania. Moreover, she shared about embedding foresight into both policy making and societal conversation, discussing two Foresight on Demand projects: Scenarios on “Transhumanist Revolutions” and foresight-meets-speculative-design project “Futures Garden”.
• Totti Könnölä (Insight Foresight Institute, Spain) shared about the Foresight on Demand project "European R&I foresight and public engagement for Horizon Europe" that advanced several objectives: generating foresight intelligence, i.e. through forward-looking policy briefs; monitoring of foresight activities and providing support for exploitation (Horizon Futures Watch); laying the building blocks for a European foresight community supported by an online platform.
• Marie Ségur (Futuribles, France) presented a case study on “Future of social work in France to 2035-2050” and the methods employed throughout the process: using surveys to motivate engagement with futures thinking, scenario building that may inform strategic choices and guide towards a vision and, finally, communicating outcomes in a synthetic manner, that may contribute to a wider discussion around the topic.
• Eye of Europe project coordinator Radu Gheorghiu (UEFISCDI, Romania) shared previews of the upcoming upgrade of the futures4europe.eu platform, with its new look and extended features.
  
  
  
  This event is the second in a series of five MLEs planned in the project; the following event will be held in January 2025 also in an online format. All Eye of Europe MLEs are organized by Technology Centre Prague (TC), Eye of Europe partner and key Czech national think tank and academia based NGO with a rich experience with knowledge-based policy making support and (participatory as well as expert based) foresight activities.

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Drawing on their decades-long experience and their permanent innovative processes, Futuribles and 4Sing run a week-long seminar, combining theoretical underpinnings and methods with practical applications for organizations.

About the event
This training is aimed at (future) foresight professionals, whether they are just starting out on this path, or have already set up a foresight function within their organizations, and regardless of whether they have already carried out a foresight project or are about to do so for the first time.

Offered entirely in English, the week-long seminar will also bring together and launch a conversation between foresight practitioners at a European and international level.

Agenda

9/16. Why foresight and how to do it well?

9/17. How do organizations develop and use foresight?

9/18. People and places using foresight

9/19. Various foresight methods

9/20. Using foresight to make change happen now

Facilitators

The training is facilitated by Marie Ségur, Research Director at Futuribles, and Adrian Taylor, Founder of 4Sing (ForeSight to Strategy for Security and Sustainability IN Governance).

With the support of:

• Antoine Cahen, Special Foresight Advisor at the European Parliament Research Service (EPRS), has recently built scenarios on the Ukraine war and its aftermaths on the European Union.

• Léa Chaussis, Futures Literacy Expert and Associate Project Officer at UNESCO.

• Cécile Désaunay, Research Director at Futuribles.

• Olivier Desbiey, Group Head of Foresight at AXA.

• Erik Grab, Vice-President in charge of Strategic Anticipation and Co-Innovation at Michelin.

• François de Jouvenel, Director of Futuribles, General Delegate of Futuribles International.

• Marianne Julien, Foresight Investigation Leader and Facilitator at i-Lab at Air Liquide.

• Christine Kavazanjian, Futures Literacy & Foresight Expert and Project Officer at UNESCO.

• Michel Maietta, Founder of IARAN (Inter-Agency Research and Analysis Network), with a long experience of using foresight to face humanitarian crises.

• Pierre-Antoine Marti, Research Director at Futuribles.

• Michelle Rathman-Josserand, Director of the Strategic and Scientific Foresight and Risk Intelligence at L’Oréal.

• Corinne Roëls, General Secretary of Futuribles.

• Geraldine Wessing, Chief Political Analyst at Shell.

Registration link:

https://www.futuribles.com/formation/one-week-foresight-training-2/#programme

Training cost:

The early bird registration fee is 3,200 € excluding tax, or 3,840 € including VAT, until June 21, 2024.

The standard registration fee is 4,000 € excluding tax, or 4,800 € including VAT.

Venue

Paris, 7th arrondissement, 75007 Paris, France