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Looking Back at the Briefs
Susanne.Giesecke (at) arcs.ac.at
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Partners Correspondents
Information gathering attracting
new correspondents MCST Fgh-ISI
Louis Lengrand Associates Dialogik
TCP Atlantis
Gathering information and writing of briefs
Correspondents
Partners
management TNO
mapping Prest
Core partners
briefs ARC-sys
issue analysis VDI
transfer CKA
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Purposes of Foresight Briefs

• provide overview information on recent and
  ongoing foresight exercises
• highlight interesting results from recent
  foresight activities, pointing to future
  challenges and opportunities for policy and
  society
• extract selected findings of relevance to
  decision-makers in European, national and
  regional policy, as well as in industry
• offer a showroom function for foresight
  exercises as an opportunity to make activities
  more widely known

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Selection Criteria

• novelty
• policy relevance
• forward-looking
• contribution to community building
• balanced thematic and geographic coverage
• compatibility with focus of Issue Analysis,
  Mapping

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Types of Foresight Briefs

• Overview Briefs covering the full range of
  activities within large-scale foresight exercises
• Single Issue Briefs highlighting selected
  findings from individual foresight exercises or
  panels
• Policy Briefs overview on a cluster of
  foresights focussing all on a similar issue
• Methodological Briefs informing of new
  methodologies used in foresights
• Evaluation Briefs covering the evaluation of a
  foresight process
• Forward Looking Studies

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Addressees

• policy-makers
• public administration
• at European (Parliament, Commission) and
• national level (Ministries, funding bodies,
  research councils)
• researchers and strategists in industry
  academic organizations
• interested stakeholders and stakeholder
  organizations (industrial associations, NGOs)

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The Process of Brief Production
Call
Direct approach
Proposal
Review/selection
Rolling List
Invitation
Core Partners Partners
1st draft
Editorial work
Mapping
Issue Analysis
Final version
Online Brief
Book publication
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Brief Template Online (1)
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Brief Template Online (2)
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EFMN Briefs Current Status
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Number of Briefs on EFMN
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Number of Briefs by Type of Author
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Regional Distribution - EU
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Regional Distribution Rest of World
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Regional Distribution Over Time
Latin America North America Asia-Pacific Worldwide
EU
Russia Europe-non EU
Africa Latin America North
America Europe-non EU Asia-Pacific Worldwide EU
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Overview of Briefs by Topics
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Use of Brief as Reference
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Feedback on Brief/Cited as Reference
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Participatory Aspects of Foresight

• limited approach to participation
• combination of (expert) panel discussions,
  interviews, hearings, open forums
• themes are predefined
• most experts are pre-nominated experts
• few exceptions, for example
• German (Futur),
• Denmark (Env. Friendly Agriculture) co-nomination
  of experts
• not more effective, but results sometimes better
  implemented or accepted

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Obstacles of Result Implementation

• limited juristiction of clients, addressees
• limited funds
• no design for implementation
• structures of clients not considered
• structural changes required
• client not enough engaged in Foresight

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Outcomes of Foresights (1)

• networking
• recognize views different from ones own
• new subjects found worthwhile for pursuing
• RD policy
• business issues
• soft factors for improvements
• continued working groups
• intrasectoral cooperation in policy-related
  institutions
• multi-disciplinary teams (to provide emerging
  technologies relevant for Denmark)
• system integration technologies, products,
  services across various fields of applications
• personnel interdisciplinary training

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Outcomes of Foresights (2)

• bridging the divide between policy makers and
  society (transition economy)
• unintended effects policy learning processes,
  designing future foresight activities which
  target more directly societal needs, individual
  learning
• make policy process transparent
• bring to the fore key challenges key
  individuals (champions)
• identify hidden obstacles
• get new actors involved
• understanding the current future dynamics of
  change
• process innovation HOW to gather information,
  design new tools

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Limits of Foresight

• limited usefulness of sectoral (or other) studies
  (implies the commissioning of new and better
  studies)
• EU focus often missing
• in technology foresights, focus on employment,
  working conditions, environment is often missing
• clients (ministries) mostly not involved in the
  process (or as observers), role definition
  unclear
• difficult to translate new scientific insights
  into possible commercial innovation
• key actor involvement necessary
• learning process user friendly report
• process effective if senior stakeholders are
  fully engaged