Briefs

• EFP Brief No. 152: Combining ICT and Cognitive Science: Opportunities and Risks
  • 24.05.2011 Author : Norbert Malanowski

    Many experts think that the technological convergence of previously separated sciences like nanotechnology, biotechnology, information and communication technologies and cognitive sciences will have a deep, long-term impact on society and economy. Key actors in society need to become aware of the challenges linked to converging applications (CA) and take decisions in support of developing them.

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• EFP Brief No. 151: Furniture Foresight Centre – CEFFOR®
  • Author : Jesus Navarro

    CEFFOR was created to promote the sustainable development (in terms of all three pillars: economic, social and environmental) of the furniture industry in countries with high costs of production. CEFFOR is to accomplish this task by means of contributing strategic information to the social agents and companies who participate in determining enterprise strategies and industry

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• EFP Brief No. 150: Strategic Capacity Building in Clusters to Enhance Future-oriented Open Innovation Processes
  • 22.05.2011 Author : bsautter

    For the purpose of increasing and sustaining business and regional long-term competitiveness, information and training modules were developed to enrich cluster development policies with tools that give incentives for and facilitate ‘outward-looking’ (open innovation) and forward-looking (foresight, technology assessment) activities and thus provide strategic guidance for developing future-proof, open innovation processes. After testing the tools

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• EFP Brief No. 149: EU-Africa Energy Partnership: Implications for Biofuel Use
  • Author : Michael Charles

    This brief intends to provide an overview of the rationale underlying the EU-Africa Energy Partnership, in addition to an analysis of the potential implications of this policy on the development of sub-Saharan African nations. It is posited that the partnership could have potentially negative repercussions if critical uncertainties are not sufficiently taken into account, and

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• EFP Brief No. 148: Transregional Foresight to Improve and Coordinate Regional Innovation Strategies in Europe
  • Author : shafnerzimmermann

    Empowering the strategic development of Europe’s regions is a critical requirement for transforming the EU into a competitive knowledge-based economy. To this end, regional decision-makers need to be enabled to design and implement better RTDI policies, and also to benefit from a better coordination of regional, national and EU policies. By developing and testing a

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• EFP Brief No. 147: ERoSC – The Socio-economic Impact of Emerging Social Computing Applications
  • Author : Corina Pascu

    ERoSC is an exploratory research project that aims at studying the socio-economic impact of emerging social computing applications. The exploratory research scheme of the European Commission Joint Research Centre’s Institute for Prospective Studies (IPTS) is an internal instrument aimed at building up competence in strategically relevant scientific fields. The ERoSC project has been awarded as

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• EFP Brief No. 146: Germany 2020 New Challenges for a Land on Expedition
  • Author : Jan Hofmann

    The brief provides a short overview of a project in which Deutsche Bank Research has combined its own foresight expertise with inputs from the bank’s business strategists and external experts in order to develop scenarios for the future development of the German economy and society against the backdrop of intensifying structural change. EFMN Brief No.

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• EFP Brief No. 145: Constructing Dark Scenarios for Privacy Policy Formulation
  • Author : David Wright

    In the last few decades, scenarios have provided a way of analysing the implications of alternative futures, especially as they might be impacted by new technologies. This has been no less true of ambient intelligence (AmI), which may be embedded everywhere in the not so distant future. Most of the scenarios developed by AmI enthusiasts

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• EFP Brief No. 144: US Families 2025: Trends and Alternative Futures
  • Author : Alexandra Montgomery

    In response to a call for papers on the future of feminism from Futures, the international scholarly journal of Futures Studies, an informal workshop was organized to explore changes to US families and how the roles of men, women and children might be influenced by such forces. The ‘US Families 2025’ workshop was conducted entirely

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• EFP Brief No. 143: Teagasc 2030: Reinventing the Irish Agri-Food Knowledge System
  • Author : Patrick Crehan

    Teagasc means ‘teaching’ or ‘instruction’ in Gaelic. It is the name of the food and agricultural research, education and advisory body in Ireland. By 2006, fundamental changes happening to the Common Agricultural Policy in Europe were already being felt throughout the Irish agri-food sector. New and emerging issues were gaining importance and looked likely to

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