Futures4Europe Newsletter: July 2025 |
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Dear Foresight Community, As we prepare for the summer, there is much to be looked back on. From the latest Mutual Learning Exercise, Pilot Workshops, and starter foresight videos, Eye of Europe has been actively building momentum, fostering collaboration, and laying the groundwork for a stronger, more connected foresight community across Europe. After a successful Futures4Europe Conference in Vienna in May, Eye of Europe has not stopped expanding the reach of futures thinking across Europe. Indeed, diverse spaces for exchanging insights and knowledge were activated — from aging and assisted living technologies in Berlin, to fashion as a driver of change in Thessaloniki, and emotional ecosystems explored in Bucharest, the cosmopolitan dimension of futures thinking continues to transcend borders. Read on to see what the Futures Community has been up to and keep an eye out for upcoming events this autumn. Wishing you a restful and inspiring summer. Sincerely, The Futures4Europe Team |
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Imagination and Metacognition in Futures Imagination is often relegated to a secondary domain of thought – a frivolous, playful, and unreliable mental activity confined to childhood, the arts, or, at best, applied creativity. However, when examined through the lens of cognitive science, it reveals itself as a profound and complex cognitive function. Nicoletta Boldrini from Tech4Future explores imagination's pivotal role in futures and foresight processes. | | |
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🇪🇺 EU Level Initiatives and Projects |
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Aging & Assisted Living Technologies On May 20, the Eye of Europe project partner VDI/VDE Innovation hosted a pilot workshop on Aging and Assisted Living Technologies.
The event brought together 23 experts to explore the societal impact and potential of assistive technologies for aging populations, considering both demographic trends and technological innovation. | | |
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How Will the City of Tomorrow Grow? In their new brochure “100+ Trends Cultivating Urban Agriculture”, Dr. Anna Kirstgen and Dr. Björn Moller from the Fraunhofer ISI Foresight Department explore this question as part of the FOODCITYBOOST project. Their insights highlight the growing diversity and dynamism of urban agriculture and its evolving role in shaping future cities. | | |
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Fashion As a Force For Change What if fashion wasn’t just about what you wear – but about how you live, what you value, and where we’re all headed? That was the guiding question behind Future of Sustainable Fashion, an Eye of Europe workshop hosted by Helenos Consulting on January 20, 2025. To know more about past and upcoming pilot workshops, read the policy brief! | | |
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Emotions Ecosystems 2040 Workshop UEFISCDI held an Eye of Europe workshop on emotions ecosystems on 24-25 June near Bucharest, Romania. Participants from across disciplines explored the concept of emotion ecosystems — the dynamic, interwoven emotional currents that shape our collectives, whether in communities, institutions, or digital spaces. The goal was to imagine what more desirable emotional futures might look like. | | |
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From Leaf to Root As part of the Eye of Europe project, the Finland Futures Research Centre is reimagining how we introduce futures thinking through a new series of Foresight Starter Videos. The latest instalment —Video #5—dives into Sohail Inayatullah’s Causal Layered Analysis, a method that digs deep beneath the surface to uncover the roots of change. | | |
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News About Mutual Learning Events Over 20 participants gathered in Budapest, Hungary, on April 7-8, 2025, to the fourth Eye of Europe Mutual Learning Event. The discussions centered on the role of foresight in shaping long-term visions and setting priorities for science, technology, and innovation policies especially in the context of accelerating technological, economic, societal, and geopolitical change. | | |
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🇫🇮 National Level Initiatives and Projects |
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Reflections on the 2025 Futures Conference In mid-June, the University of Turku hosted the 25th Futures Conference, bringing together over 300 participants to explore the future of technologies—their development, potential, and the risks they pose as catalysts for social change. Mikkel Knudsen, a researcher at the Finland Futures Research Centre and speaker at the event, shared with us his takeaways. | | |
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🗓 Futures4Europe Conference 2025 |
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The topic of Future-Oriented Collective Intelligence (FOCI) was at the centre of the Futures4Europe Conference that took place on 15-16 May 2025 in Vienna, Austria. To gain an overview of the themes and perspectives presented, take a look at the book of abstracts. We also invite you to revisit or discover the highlights of the event through our photo gallery and wrap-up video. We look forward to meeting again in 2026! | | |
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Interview with Mikkel Knudsen For this Coffee Corner edition, meet Mikkel Knudsen, Project Specialist at Finland Futures Research Centre. With an interest at the intersection of future studies and political science, Mikkel leads the work on Futures Literacy in the Eye of Europe Project in order to expand futures thinking among non-experts. A key part of this is to make foresight accessible to the wider public, in order not to be seen as something technical but also as something accessible through other mediums. | | |
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| | The last edition of the Eye of Europe Mutual Learning Events series will take place in-person on 23-24 October 2025 in Chisinau, Moldova. It will focus on how to use foresight for Science, Technology & Innovation (STI) knowledge-based policy making. | | |
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| | The 26th World Futures Studies Federation World Conference will be hosted on 29-31 October 2025 by the Institute for Futures Research and Stellenbosch Business School in Bellville, Cape Town. It will aim to foster deep reflection and bold dialogue across disciplines. | | |
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📢 Join the Futures4Europe Community Have you or your organisation just published a foresight report? Do you have interesting insights on the potential futures of a certain science and technology niche? Or maybe there is a book on futures thinking that you reviewed and want to share? futures4europe.eu is the online home of the European foresight community. It welcomes foresight practitioners, trainers, futurists, foresight beneficiaries, future-sensitive artists, policy experts, and futures enthusiasts at large to explore the rich content on the platform and to contribute with their own foresight projects, results, events and posts. Joining as a member is easy: 1) Click on 'Register' on the top right corner of futures4europe.eu and set up your account. 2) Once logged in, you can also create an organizational account, and/or add content: a project, a project result, an event or a post. |
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