The first Mutual Learning Event (MLE) took place on May 23, 2024 in Bratislava, Slovakia as part of the Horizon Europe project Eye of Europe, which aims to contribute to the maturing of a vibrant Research and Innovation (R&I) foresight community in Europe and to support the integration of foresight practices into R&I policy-making.

Forty participants from partner organizations and external representatives of ministries, governmental bodies, R&I funding agencies and the European institutions gathered in the premises of the Government Office of the Slovak Republic.

This MLE, organized by Technology Centre Prague (TC), focused on the identification of emerging needs and approaches in the practice of foresight for research and innovation.

To this end, the MLE in Bratislava was structured along the following phases:

• Eye of Europe’s vision and main building blocks, presented by project coordinator Radu Gheorghiu
• The context and role of this MLE, and a brief overview of other mutual learning events that took place since 2020, presented by Michal Pazour 
• Showcasing preliminary results of the Stocktaking of the organisation of R&I Foresight activities in the European Research Area (ERA), by Simone Weske. The presentation highlighted key benefits of the R&I foresight activities, constraints and bottlenecks, as perceived by the survey respondents.
• Four country studies - Slovakia, Finland, Austria and Sweden - have brought interesting insights and comparisons related to R&I foresight uptake and potential for improvement:
  Slovakia: Research and Innovation System and the potential for R&I Foresight |Michal Habrman, Government Office of the Slovak Republic
  Finland: Finnish national foresight ecosystem | Juha Kaskinen, FFRC University of Turku Finland
  Sweden: Leading from the Future in Sweden | Joakim Skog, Vinnova Sweden
  Austria: R&I foresight | Christian Naczinsky, Austrian Ministry of Education
• Discussions in four participant groups on emerging functions and approaches of R&I foresight. Overall, the group discussions touched on the dynamics of R&I foresight demand and supply and on the diversification of tools and methods for establishing dialogue with policy-making.
  
  This video crea ted by the event host, Výskumná a inovačná autorita (VAIA), offers a glimpse into the spirit of both the MLE and the R&I foresight masterclass that preceded it. The detailed outputs of the MLE will be published in a dedicated report.
  
  
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  Five MLEs are planned in the project, with the following one being held online in September 2024. 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.
  

As a Coordination and Support Action funded, project “Eye of Europe” aims to enhance the integration of foresight practices into Research and Innovation (R&I) policy making across Europe. Ultimately, the project envisions a more cohesive and influential R&I foresight community that contributes significantly, as a collective intelligence, to shaping and guiding policy decisions.

To this end, Eye of Europe builds on existing initiatives and experiences to foster knowledge-sharing between foresight practitioners and policy makers, attract domain experts in foresight endeavours, and engage a broader audience in futures thinking. Nurturing futures4europe as the online home for the community and running various face-to-face events with different stakeholders will underpin these ambitions.
Methodologically, the project relies on the following building blocks:

• futures4europe.eu as the online hub for the R&I foresight community in Europe: The platform accommodates the interests of various stakeholders such as foresight experts, beneficiaries, domain experts, and an active audience. It operates on multiple integration levels, from mapping organizations and experts to sharing foresight results and capabilities. Moreover, it acts as the communication gateway for ongoing foresight activities, events, educational and inspirational materials.
  
  
• Sharing of practices: This entails mapping institutions engaged in R&I foresight activities, promoting mutual learning through interactive formats, developing shared visions for the future of foresight in R&I policy within the European Research Area (ERA), fostering exchanges among the foresight in R&I policy community through conferences, encouraging dialogues between futurist/expert communities, academics and policy practitioners.
  Key figures: 5 mutual learning events (MLE): 2 online, 3 face-to-face events; 1 vision building event for the Future of R&I Foresight in ERA; 2 conferences
  
  
• Running foresight pilots: Conducting a series of pilot workshops and online consultations with diverse formats, methodologies, and participants. This involves identifying topics of common interest within the European Research Area (ERA), where foresight perspectives offer added value, designing and implementing tailored pilot foresight activities involving various stakeholders, harnessing lessons learnt and feeding them into the platform and other dissemination channels.
  Key figures: 11 Foresight pilot processes: 3 exclusively with citizens, 4 mainly with experts and researchers tackling specific R&I topics, 4 involving a bespoke group of participants. Out of the 11 events, 8 will be face-to-face events, and 3 pilots will take place online
  
  
• Boosting futures literacy: The project encourages meaningful engagement with diverse audiences, from foresight professionals, researchers, policy-makers to various futures sensitive profiles (e.g. entrepreneurs, journalists, artists) and the wider civil society. The project will provide guides, methodology toolboxes, and training modules for R&I foresight and futures literacy, incorporating written and multimedia content.
  Key figures: 5-10 short training sets for participants in foresight exercises; 1 training module for foresight beneficiaries; 1 foresight training for early career researchers, 1 Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on R&I foresight; 12 conversational podcasts; 6-8 Short videos and/or animated materials showcasing foresight processes and outcomes
  
  
• Fueling the public discourse around futures: Promoting the project and fostering the foresight community via the online platform futures4europe.eu and complementary channels such as social media and a dedicated newsletter. In addition to highlighting the project's own initiatives, Eye of Europe will also aim to promote foresight content developed in other projects, showcasing a diverse range of perspectives and insights within the foresight field. The quarterly newsletter will feature various content types like interviews, project updates, and foresight-related articles. Social media, particularly Futures4Europe's LinkedIn page, will be used to engage professional communities and wider audiences, with a focus on sharing project activities and fostering discussions.