The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation has launched a new foresight platform, futures4europe. The platform is designed to collect, host, and distribute foresight activities in and about Europe. Users can browse foresight content on several topics, including Refugees, Seed banks, Civic Resilience, Signal scanning, Vision, Overpopulation, Green manufacturing, Decolonisation, Social justice, Active ageing, Ethics, and IPR regulation.
The platform connects experts in foresight and policymakers in research and innovation from all over the EU. It gathers national and European foresight projects and promotes future literacy through educational material and relevant newsletters. The platform has released eight foresight policy briefs in support of the reflection towards the next Framework Programme. These policy briefs have used scenarios to develop recommendations for R&I policymakers in the EU and its Member States. The Commission has now published these policy briefs.
Policy briefing No.7 Futures of civic resilience in Europe, 2040 explores different future scenarios with radical changes in society to help us prepare better for future crises and strengthen civil society’s resilience today. The briefing presents four scenarios based on two main axes – techno-economic adaptation and socio-environmental stewardship. These scenarios explore how different combinations of these axes could affect the physical, social, economic, and environmental aspects of civic resilience, as well as the roles and strategies of various actors. The briefing also provides policy implications for each scenario, highlighting the opportunities and challenges for research and innovation policy to enhance civic resilience in the present and the future. The aim is to offer alternative perspectives to policy-makers and stimulate strategic thinking on civic resilience.