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  • Projects and activities | Last updated: 03 Jul 2025

ESPAS Horizon Scanning

Foresight

Brief me

horizon

The European Strategy and Policy Analysis System brings together EU institutions and bodies who are committed to thinking longer term about the challenges and opportunities facing Europe.

ESPAS Horizon scanning project is a structured activity whose objective is to detect and analyse at an early stage emerging ‘game changers’ that could have significant impact on society and policy. Beyond seeking and identifying emerging trends, horizon scanning helps assess and prioritise early signals for decision-making or for further examination and analysis.

The horizon scanning process

The process is threefold. It starts by collecting ‘signs of new’ from scanners across the European Institutions and bodies, as well as international organisations. Next, sense-making workshops are held to identify potential emerging trends, and finally, meaning-making sessions are conducted to understand the possible consequences and policy implications. These sessions result in lists of 'signals of change', identified emerging developments

ESPAS Horizon scanning process

1) Scanning

Scanners are always on the hunt for ‘signs of new’: factual information about new developments indicating something different, potentially significant. These signs are shared on the Futurium platform for discussion.

 2) Sense-making

Monthly sense-making workshops are held to examine collected ‘signs of new’, find links and interconnections among them across policies and sectors, and envisage potential impactful future developments, or ‘signals of change’.

3) Future impacts

Future impact workshops are exploratory and prioritisation sessions, held after some sense-making workshops. They aim to decipher the three potentially most impactful ‘signals of change’ from about 20 signals.

This careful process results in publication of Horizon Scanning newsletters providing a broader perspective on policy making.

Publications

The Horizon Scanning newsletters published three times per year present the results of one cycle of horizon scanning. Each issue introduces around 20 emerging issues, focusing on three prioritised signals.

Read all the publications

Horizon scanning feeds into other ESPAS projects, for example the Global Trends Reports. 

Signal Cards

The Signals Cards present emerging issues identified through the ESPAS Horizon Scanning activity. Apart from using them to inform the regular Horizon Scanning newsletters, they work well as conversation starters in (foresight) workshops to get people into the right headspace to think about and interact with the future. The Signal Cards are a fun and interactive tool ideal for workshops to expand thinking, foster imagination and explore different potential futures. 

Signal Cards

How to use the cards 

Instructions provided with the cards contain four different short exercises that can be used at the beginning of a workshop to broaden the thinking, spark imagination and encourage looking forward.  

You can start your workshop with a quick exercise to  

  • find relevant signals of change for your topic 

  • challenge the common perspective 

  • explore different aspects of novelty or 

  • think about the culminating effects various signals might have together. 

If you have more time, you can dive deeper into the signals and explore their potential impacts for example in the beginning of a (foresight) project. Participants can envision a world where some of the signals become reality and brainstorm what might be the consequences. This can help to pinpoint areas for further analysis. You can find detailed instructions for all these exercises in the Signal Cards file. Or feel free to create your own activities with the Signals Cards! 

Download the Signal Cards 

Download the Signal Cards below, follow the enclosed detailed instructions and see how they can transform your next workshop.  

Print the chosen cards (ideally on thick paper, 2 pages per A4 sheet to get A5 sized cards) or paste them as pictures to a digital platform for online workshops. 

The current deck has 113 Signal Cards, and we will keep updating it annually to keep the signals fresh and relevant. 

Download Signal Cards

 

To learn more about the ESPAS Horizon Scanning project or be part of it, please contact JRC-HORIZONSCAN@ec.europa.eu.

Latest knowledge from this Project