About us

President von der Leyen has decided both to reinforce the use of evidence and to mainstream foresight into EU policymaking in her drive to make the Commission more geopolitical and the EU stronger in the world. The use of evidence in policymaking and foresight are two dimensions of EU policymaking for which the JRC and the Competence Centre on Foresight are key players in the European Commission. 

The CC on Foresight can foster its role by facilitating collaboration across Commission services, and by showing the advantages of a more forward-looking policy cycle where future challenges are better explored together with the stakeholders. Comptence Centre on Foresight is part of EU Policy Lab, a collaborative and experimental space for innovative policymaking.

Goals

The overarching goals of the CC on Foresight are:  

• Generating anticipatory knowledge through continuous information gathering and analysis, contributing to building the JRC's anticipatory culture through carrying out, in a structured and continuous manner, identification and monitoring of emerging issues, weak signals of change and events that might have significant future implications for the EU, but are not yet on the policy radar or addressed adequately (early warning).  

• Shaping and running in-depth foresight processes & on-demand short future-oriented policy support formats, to co-design and undertake foresight processes for policy DGs. These studies last between 6 to 24 months and are tailored to the needs of policy DGs and carried out in close collaboration with other JRC units, and, if appropriate, external organisations. Foresight processes are using different approaches, such as development of scenarios, vision building, Delphi surveys etc. The future oriented policy support formats can be also short engagements, most of the time from half-day workshops to maximum 3 months. These processes are based on the tools developed by the CC on Foresight (e.g. megatrends analysis sessions, adapted scenario exploration system).  

• Contributing to the Strategic Foresight activities led by VP Maroš Šefčovič, co-drafting the Commission Strategic Yearly Foresight report, providing the Secretariat to the Strategic Foresight Network, supporting the implementation of the Foresight Rolling-Plan, producing Foresight newsletters and briefings, participating in the meetings of the inter-institutional ESPAS network etc.  

• Establishing and animating a Community of Practice (CoP) on foresight in the future. The objective is to foster the advancement and use of foresight for EU policy making, share knowledge on and experience with new foresight approaches and reflect and build on best practices for foresight for policy making.

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