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 have an impact on the sector. It was necessary to ask how Teagasc could maintain its relevance to clients and stakeholders as it moved ahead. The study builds upon previous foresight exercises and long-term strategic studies undertaken in Ireland and the EU.
Posts Tagged ‘cultural heritage’
EFP Brief No. 143: Teagasc 2030: Reinventing the Irish Agri-Food Knowledge System
Sunday, May 22nd, 2011EFP Brief No. 118: Austria’s Futures: Past Perspectives and Present Expectations
Friday, May 20th, 2011The Brief covers a foresight exercise that is unique in so far as it revisits the projections and scenarios of a historical foresight undertaken in Austria in 1983 for the challenges and changes that Austria would have to meet up to the year 2005. Not only are these sce-narios revisited but also compared to the reality of 2005. In a further step, a second foresight activity of this kind was started to build scenarios for Austria’s future in 2025. The experts of 1983 saw the microelectronic revolution as the technological pacemaker of the future and 20 years later tried to assess the actual impact of this technological progress on various parts of Austrian life.
EFP Brief No. 115: SMART Perspectives of European Materials Research
Friday, May 20th, 2011Modern materials sciences take as their objective to develop and tailor materials with a desired set of properties suitable for a given application. Next to conventional approaches, predictive modelling and simulation is more and more used. This results into a rapidly increasing knowledge base, allowing for more precise experimental set-ups, more precise simulations and tailoring of goal-oriented materials. They play a key role in the value chain and in product innovation. Although limited profits are made from materials, materials are technology enablers for new high added value products and therefore a key in innovation acceleration. More success and increased opportunities for applications is the outcome. The SMART project aimed at providing support for future strategic decisions in this sector to foster the strengthening of the European Research Area.
EFP Brief No. 63: South African Benchmark 2020
Friday, May 20th, 2011The overall goal of this foresight study is the identification of global technological trends, which will influence the competitiveness and future development of South African industries over the next 15 years. The study specifically focuses on innovation areas that hold the potential to reduce industrial dependency on foreign technology. Broad-based recommendations are formulated, intending to support the formulation of policies, strategies and programmes aimed at growing South Africa’s technology and innovation base.
EFP Brief No. 8: Foresight Embedding in Malta
Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011On the eve of accession to the European Union, Malta like all new members states, experienced considerable pressure for change. This included a drive to adapt RTDI policies for participation in the European Research Area. For a small transition economy with limited resources there was a need to adopt a creative approach to policy development. In the period 2002-2003 foresight was introduced to Malta via three pilot projects conducted by the MCST. These pilot projects played an important role in breaking path-dependencies. They liberated the mind-sets of stakeholders and provided occasion for mutual learning on systemic issues. Foresight is now an inte-gral part of the day-to-day work of the MCST which continues to promote and encourage its application to other policy domains.
EFP Brief No. 7: Archaeology in Ireland 2020
Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011Since the 1990s there has been explosive growth in the number of construction and public works related archaeological excavations carried out in Ireland. As a result archaeology has become a business activity. It operates in a competitive climate radically different from that of the traditional university research environment. Although the primary purpose of archaeology is to create knowledge about the past, systemic failures have emerged with the result that most of the knowledge created in the course of construction related digs will effectively be lost to science. The goal of this foresight exercise is to bring together all relevant stakeholders, develop a vision for the role of archaeology in Irish society in 2020, propose recommendations that will address systemic weaknesses that have emerged along with the rapid growth in the number of archaeological excavations and propose additional measures to ensure an appropriate management of this important aspect of Irish cultural heritage.
