European Foresight
Highlights
Facing the future: time for the EU to meet global challenges:
Results coming soon...
Associated Links
Future-Oriented Technology Analysis International Conference
Online Foresight Guide
Institute for Prospective Technological Studies
ERAWATCH
evidence-based policy intelligence
The Industrial Research & Innovation website
Science and Technology Foresight Knowledge Sharing Platform
Other Links
Co-ordination of Research Policies with the Western Balkan Countries
Global research on the future of manufacturing
Second International Seville Seminar on Future-Oriented Technology Analysis (FTA) - September 2006
Forum
Following on the working group discussions that took place during the FTA seminar, a forum has been set up to enable the FTA community to maintain an active dialogue.
The objectives of the forum include:
- To provide an open space for dialogue between different (yet overlapping) communities, such as foresight, technology assessment, futures studies, technological forecasting, evaluation, quality management, etc., with a view to promoting mutual understanding.
- To nurture the development of a self-organisation capacity within the FTA community.
- To identify needs within the FTA community and to enable mutual support between its members.
To participate by replying to already posted queries (active links) or posting new issues you will need to login into the forum. To access and login into the online forum you must follow these steps:
- If you are a newcomer and have not registered yet: click here to register
- Username must be without spaces, use only letters.
- Password with minimum 8 characters.
- Take care to respect case sensitivity when entering the security code.
- When entering security code there are no spaces so please enter numbers and letters directly.
- Once you have registered, close the popup window.
- If you are already registered and in possession of a username and password:
click here to access the online forum
- Please remember to login at the top right corner afterwards and to respect case sensitivity when entering username and password.
- You will only be able to reply to posted queries (active links) or post new ones if you are logged in.
- In case you have not logged out from your previous visit you might not need to login when using the same computer.
- To check if you are already logged in see if your username is appearing at the centre of the heading of the forum as well as if at the top right corner it is written "login" (meaning you need to login) or "logout" (meaning you are already logged in).
- It is recommended that you logout before leaving the forum.
- For a demo on "how to log in" and "how to post an answer to a query" click here.
Initially, the forum has been divided into 6 categories:
Building capacity
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This discussion group is devoted to debate on ways to enhance the present capacity of the FTA community to address the challenges it faces. These include the need for:
- Consolidation: through knowledge exchange and the strengthening of ties between FTA practitioners, with a view to the exchange of good practice and the diffusion of new developments in the field.
- Expansion: through the diffusion of FTA to a wider array of policy and business settings.
- Renewal: through the provision of training courses, particularly at the University level.
The overall aim of the discussion group is to exchange knowledge and ideas around the issue of capacity building and to create an environment for sustained collaborative working.
More specifically, the aim of the discussion group is (a) to collect and collate information on current activities in the area; (b) to identify and discuss new ideas for strengthening the capacity of the FTA community to address the challenges it faces; (c) to identify and exploit (funding) opportunities as they arise; and (d) to develop and strengthen ties between actors in the FTA community.
Customer client relations / corporate foresight
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This discussion group is devoted to consideration of ways to develop more effective relationships with potential clients, a greater recognition of the value of FTA on the part of government and industry, and an expanding market for FTA services.
The aim of this discussion group is to collectively address such major challenges as:
- How to embed FTA as part of normal good management practice, without losing the distinctive features of a focus on the longer term and wide stakeholder engagement.
- How to develop a greater awareness of the potential role of FTA and highly visible cases of its effective application and consequences.
- How to manage most effectively the interface between the processes of FTA and decision-making.
Evaluation, monitoring and quality control
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Whilst there is some monitoring and evaluation (M&E) going on in and around FTA practices, it is not yet widespread. Moreover, little existing M&E activity has been collated and codified with the purpose of promoting FTA ‘good practice’.
Challenges remain in understanding how to incorporate M&E into FTA, on who to involve in M&E, on the choice of indicators and ‘measures’ of success, around the position of benchmarking and its benefits/limitations, and, in general, on the M&E approach to adopt in FTA. The rationales for M&E, which are manifold and include, for example, issues of accountability and learning, also need to be better articulated if FTA sponsors and participants are to be convinced of its need.
Related to the area of M&E are issues concerning quality standards in FTA and ethical ‘codes of conduct’. The concept of ‘quality’ in FTA still requires further development, and should undoubtedly refer not only to FTA processes, but also to FTA content (e.g. quality of ‘inputs’ and ‘outputs’) and to FTA impacts. Ethics have been little discussed in FTA, but are perhaps growing in importance as FTA practices expand and have more influence on decision-making processes.
Preparedness to address global problems
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Every day issues cry out for systematic application of FTA, yet most debates and actions remain rooted firmly in the present, framed as responses to immediate pressing problems and challenges.
Many futures studies shift issues to broader, longer term spaces – only to often be dismissed as whimsical and irrelevant. By contrast, many FTA practitioners (for example, working in technology foresight and roadmapping) have served the instrumental needs of public and private decision-making.
Whilst this has made them ‘useful’, should not FTA practitioners become more proactive in addressing the really big challenges facing the planet? This forum concerns how this might be done effectively.
Building community links
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This discussion group is concerned with debate over how links might be improved across the FTA community and whether some links are more important than others. Strengthening links is important for several reasons, including the need to:
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Create a self-aware community capable of representation and advocacy.
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Stimulate greater cooperation and learning between related ‘knowledge traditions’, for example, through the creation of knowledge-sharing platforms.
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Reduce geographical barriers between different regions of the world.
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Provide support to ‘lone’ FTA efforts in some countries where little understanding or acknowledgement of the area might exist.
Nevertheless, many questions remain around how links might be practically improved.
Helpline
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This discussion group is devoted to enabling mutual support to take place within the FTA community. If you are a newcomer you are welcome to post any FTA related query in here.
Practitioners, academics and other stakeholders are also welcome to ask for support through this channel and, at the same time, are kindly asked to come here from time to time to help the community by sharing your experiences.
