Foresight in support of European research and innovation policies: The European Commission is preparing the funding of grand societal challenges

European Journal of Futures Research, Dec 2014

A foresight hub within the Directorate General Research and Innovation (DG RTD) of the European Commission will support the decision-making procedures of the EU Horizon 2020 research, technology, and innovation programme. Foresight in particular is seen as an instrument defining research priorities for European society’s needs in support of the ‘grand societal challenges’. The new initiative marks the recent success of the institutional and administrative application of foresight and derives from a long history of approaches to foresight taken by the European Commission. In fact, the Commission has been implementing measures to both internalise and externalise foresight during various periods since the 1970s. This paper outlines the various phases and approaches of foresight at the European Commission. It contextualises the new attempt of the foresight hub that is assumed to support the next European Commission’s research and innovation policies.

A PDF file should load here. If you do not see its contents the file may be temporarily unavailable at the journal website or you do not have a PDF plug-in installed and enabled in your browser.

Alternatively, you can download the file locally and open with any standalone PDF reader:

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs40309-014-0055-4.pdf

Foresight in support of European research and innovation policies: The European Commission is preparing the funding of grand societal challenges

Eur J Futures Res Foresight in support of European research and innovation policies: The European Commission is preparing the funding of grand societal challenges Jean-Claude Burgelman 0 Jarka Chloupková 0 Werner Wobbe 0 0 J.<C. Burgelman A foresight hub within the Directorate General Research and Innovation (DG RTD) of the European Commission will support the decision-making procedures of the EU Horizon 2020 research, technology, and innovation programme. Foresight in particular is seen as an instrument defining research priorities for European society's needs in support of the 'grand societal challenges'. The new initiative marks the recent success of the institutional and administrative application of foresight and derives from a long history of approaches to foresight taken by the European Commission. In fact, the Commission has been implementing measures to both internalise and externalise foresight during various periods since the 1970s. This paper outlines the various phases and approaches of foresight at the European Commission. It contextualises the new attempt of the foresight hub that is assumed to support the next European Commission's research and innovation policies. European Commission; Horizon 2020; Administrative foresight; Good governance - The authors have worked in relation to foresight activities of the European Commission over time. However, the views expressed in this article are these of the authors and might not in any circumstances be regarded as stating an official position of the European Commission. The authors are grateful to Nikos Kastrinos and Rene von Schomberg for comments on this article. Introduction The 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath could have triggered the acceptance and the re-appearance of foresight in the EU’s policy toolbox. Thus, instruments are needed to detect early crisis phenomena and to identify sustainable ways to overcome these. Over time in DG Research and Innovation, foresight has taken different forms in terms of approach, methodology and operation. Originally more of an academic activity, it has developed as an instrument for policy-making. However, foresight has been informative in nature, focusing on influencing policy thinking rather than policy making.1 Today, foresight is accepted as a knowledge tool for decision-making on R&I priorities. The article will explain firstly the approach of foresight in the context of good governance. Secondly it will outline the new institutional and administrative approach of foresight in the Commission. Thirdly it will look retrospectively at earlier approaches and phases of foresight in the European Commission. Then the article will describe the framework of the ‘grand societal challenges’ relevant for the operation of the foresight hub before eventually concluding its reasoning. Foresight and good governance As latterly understood, foresight feeds not only into thinking about and debating the future but also into shaping the future by means of a structured process. Historically, it has developed from pure technological and economic forecasting to a policy instrument involving stakeholder participation. The 1 Rand Cooperation: Using foresight to improve the science-policy relationship, Luxembourg 2006. same has been observed outside the Commission. Foresight is an enlightened approach to policy-making. In one sense, the Commission’s mainstreaming of foresight is a response to the challenge of improving its administration and governance,2 as outlined in its White Paper on European Governance.3 This paper sought to involve more people and organisations in policy-making and called for more openness, accountability and responsibility. In view of the diversity of national institutions, the Commission announced that it favoured policies based on framework directives and coregulation in view of the diversity of national institutions. This was to ensure smoother implementation instead of insisting on more directives and other legislation. Consequently, the Commission moved to the ‘open method of coordination’, which is a ‘soft power’ approach to governance steered and coordinated by the Commission itself. When it comes to new initiatives in the field of economic and social matters, the Commission seeks to lead the European policy agenda. This is achieved through documents setting out comparative information, results of Europe-wide consultations with stakeholders in the field, and options for action plans. The Member States then tend to reflect these policy agendas in their own national policies. The Commission has initiated Europe-wide debate on many policy issues.4 This debate-based approach to policy leads to new forms of cooperation between Member States and the Commission rather than directives and executive decisions. The Commission works on consensus-building in interinstitutional fora, as well as with Member State representatives in committees and through inter-governmental cooperation in ord (...truncated)


This is a preview of a remote PDF: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs40309-014-0055-4.pdf

Jean-Claude Burgelman, Jarka Chloupková, Werner Wobbe. Foresight in support of European research and innovation policies: The European Commission is preparing the funding of grand societal challenges, European Journal of Futures Research, 2014, pp. 55, Volume 2, Issue 1, DOI: 10.1007/s40309-014-0055-4