Time for the EU to meet global challenges'which was carried out for the Bureau of European Policy Advisors.
futures. 1. Introduction In future-oriented technology analysis (FTA), the systematti exploration of divergent views on future developments has tended to receive less attention than approaches that foster consensus seeking (Ko nno la et al. 2011;
Martin and Johnston 1999; Georghiou and Cassingena Harper 2011. At present, however, various forms of horizon scanning are gaining in popularity,
as evidenced by the considerable interest that practitioners and policy-makers have expressed in exploring alternative and even conflicting interpretations of the future (Kuosa 2010;
Rossel 2011; Saritas and Smith 2011. While the intellectual origins ofhorizon scanning'can be traced to the celebrated work by Ansoff (1975) on the recognition of weak signals,
the term was popularized and institutionalized in the UK after the millennium (Schultz 2006). For example, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural affairs (DEFRA) defined horizon scanning in 2002 as:..
the systematic examination of potential threats, opportunities and likely future developments which are at the margins of current thinking and planning'and, continuing,
horizon scanningmay explore novel and unexpected issues, as well as persistent problems or trends. 1 At present, various forms of horizon scanning are quite widespread (Amanatidou et al. 2012),
even to the point where it is not easy to take stock of those activities that do not readily fit under any single label.
Despite this variabillity horizon scanning offers tested approaches for collecctin signals which:.Articulate credible observations about current or imminent changes (either sudden, gradual,
Science and Public policy 39 (2012) pp. 222 231 doi: 10.1093/scipol/scs021 The Author 2012.
Published by Oxford university Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals. permissions@oup. com. Are felt to be potential indications of new emerging issues that may have received insufficient attention..
or causal modelling do not suffice (Linstone 1999). In this setting, where policy-makers are almost bound to be taken by surprise,
Here, the need for horizon scanning is intensified effecttivel by the long lead times for bringing about desired policy impacts (cf. climate change mitigatioon) Taking this remark further,
what signals arerelevant'the collective sense-making processes coupled with the interpretation of signals have received less attention, particularly with regard to the recognition of interconnections among the signals or the derivation of their policy implications (Dervin 1998).
Time for the EU to meet global challenges, 'which was carried out in 2009 by the Joint research Centre-Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (JRC-IPTS) for the Bureau of European Policy Advisors (BEPA) of the European commission (EC).
It should be noted that this exercise was limited not to the scanning of signals: rather, it sought to achieve greater visibility
It therefoor follows that scanners need to leverage tacit knowleedg (Nonaka 1994) which reflects their experiences and interpretations of perceived reality (Scharmer 2000).
On this point, Weick (1995) argues that sense-making is not mere interpretation: in fact, it is less about discovery and more about invention.
In a similar tone, Mo ller (2010) states that:..before something, an idea or object, can be sensed,
it has to be constructed. This construction is essentially a collective activity of knowledge creation. Against this backdrop, we regard horizon scanning as:
interpret and construct the meaning of the emerging landscape (du Toit 2003; Nelson 2010; Weick 1995.
Yet the broader significance of this individual sense-making is built collectively, for instance when observations are evaluated
or aggregated into more encompassing clusters or when their interrelationnship with other notions, such as trends, are explored. 2. 1 Scoping the scanning exercise Early on,
Some exerccise have sought to scan across a truly comprehensive spectrum (Glenn et al. 2010; Saritas and Smith 2011),
while others have focused on specific fields such as telemedicine (Blackburn et al. 2010), security (Botterhuis et al. 2010), environmental conservation (Sutherland et al. 2011),
or energy, health and cognitive enhancement (Amanatidou et al. 2012). Dedicated centres have been established to provide horizontal support for government departments (e g.
Horizon scanning Centres in the UK and Singapore; the National Intelligence Council in the USA; and the OECD Futures Programme.
Methodological advances have been pursued, for instance, in the Framework programme 7 Blue sky Foresight projects on emerging issues that shape European science and technoloog (Amanatidou et al. 2012.
and Unruh 2007) that reflect, for instance, the mandate of the client or sponsor, or the expected uses of results.
such as available resouurce or the duration of the exercise, may impose comparrabl bounds. 2. 2 Sense-making:
Saritas and Smith (2011), for instance, consider trends, drivers of change, wild cards/shocks, discontinuities, and weak signals as meaningful units to be scanned.
Kuosa (2010) notes that the widely used, but somewhat imprecise, concept of weak signalsseems to be everything
2007) argue that the collection of weak signals tends to produce relatively unstructured pools of signals
what future-relevant observations will be submitted (Hiltunen 2008; Mendonc¸a et al. 2004. Especially in the case of weak signals and wild cards, sense-making builds on the scanners'creative and heuristic capabilities to detect meaningful observations in the presence of scattered or no historical evidence (Dervin 1998.
But even if there is historical evidence to support the seemingly straightforward extrapolation of trends, assesssin such trends in relation to individual signals still permits alternative interpretations that can be reached only through sense-making.
Moreover, the most interestiin emerging issues may be characterized ambiguous by nebulous cause-and-effect relationships between existing and emergent knowledge.
moreover, the creative combination thereof to permit the creation of new entities and meanings (Nonaka 1994).
But one can also argue that the very remit of horizon scanning is to challenge the mindsets of esteemed incumbents whose perceptions may reflect well-established evidence rather than surprising interpreetation of incipient developments (Taleb 2007.
Here, we argue that horizon scanning should seek to engage diverse stakeholders (Ko nno la et al. 2007.
for instance may allow new meanings (Nonaka 1994) to be synthesized through the shared development of crosscutting challennges From a methodological perspective, internet-based tools for continuous idea generation (Graefe et al. 2010), idea management
and surveys (Haegeman et al. 2011; Mckinsey & Company 2009; Saritas and Smith 2011), for instance, can be effective in collecting
and assessing observations as well as in synthesizing these inputs (Ko nno la et al. 2007; Salo et al. 2009) in preparation for subsequent face-to-face stakeholder workshops. 2. 4 Building ground for crosscutting policy coordination At best,
participatory workshop activities offer policymakker an inspiring environment where they can openly discuss the implications of alternative future developments for policy-making in general as well as for their own responsibilities in particular.
Such workshops may also aspire to support vision-building and priority-setting and engage policy-makers
and other stakeholders in creative networking that facilitates the implementation of later action plans (Brummer et al. 2008;
Fuerth 2009. From the process perspective, this type of direct engagemeen in workshops helps expose policy-makers to the diversity of issues at stake.
However, when attempting to take issues forward in policy formulation, it is often necessaar to synthesize them into meaningful clusters that exhibit a logical structure
and are linked to existing decision-making structures (Georghiou and Csaaingena Harper 2011). This is because the mere listing of issues appears
'whose exploration paves way for policy coordination and the attainnmen of systemic policy objectives (Schoen et al. 2011).
by doing so, foster the development of joint policy measures without necessitating potentially time-consuming and cumbersame changes in existing organizational structures and practices (Anderson 2005).
3. Case: Facing the future In 2008 9, the BEPA of the EC organized a series of foresiigh activities (European communities 2009;
Boden et al. 2010) which focused on long-term developments and their policy implications on EU policy-making, as a means of preparing for the development of the Europe 2020 strategy and related policy initiatives such as the EC Communication on the Innovation Union.
In this context, JRC-IPTS and BEPA started collaboratiiv horizon scanning efforts which evolved gradually from initial exchanges of relevant foresight studies to more systemaatic comprehensive scanning and detailed analysis of reports,
with the aim of identifying future trends and disruptive events that could have major implications on EU policy-making by 2025 (cf.
Fig. 1). Furthermore JRC-IPTS proposed that a robust portfolio modelling (RPM) screening process (Ko nno la et al. 2007;
Brummer et al. 2008,2011) would be conducted to engage a wider community of experts in the assessment of key findings from these reports towards the identification of most pertinnen issues.
Finally, a stakeholder workshop was organized in order to take stock of these issues and, specificcally to make sense of them in terms of crosscutting challenges
and phases of foresight exerciseFacing the future'(Boden et al. 2010). Facing the future: Horizon scanning. 225 developed using a participatory approach.
These issues were complemented with additional issues from the FTA 2008 conference survey. 3 3. 2 Assessment of issues The formulated issues were assessed in an online survey by some 270 external experts who represented foresight practitiooners
relevance to EU policy-making. novelty in comparison with earlier policy debates. probability of occurrence by 2025 In total, 381 issues were evaluated on a seven-point Likert-scale
the expert assessments were synthesized with the RPM tool (Liesio et al. 2007; Ko nno la et al. 2007.
In the RPM framework, the criterion-specific scores v j i for each issue j=1,,
for instance, indicates that the first criterion is the most importtant followed by the second and then the third.
and thus paved way for the formulation of crosscutting challenges. 3. 4 Synthesizing issues A two-day workshop was organized to group the identified issues into crosscutting challenges
A major war by 2020, for instance, was a core issue in the rare event-oriented analysis
and security Issue Borderline issue>50%Core issue 100%A major war by 2020 R NATO will become more open to outside partnerships M Terrorists
M Pervasive sensors for real-time surveillaanc are diffused widely on a global scale by 2020 M V Investments in defence will carry on declining in world R M=
Horizon scanning. 227 the individual crosscutting challenges proposed by workshop participants into five categories and then, on the second day of the workshop,
and decision processes (Boden et al. 2010):.The need to change the uses of essential natural resources by aligning all policy realms towards sustainabillity extending from policy design through implementtatio to evaluation..
The final report (Boden et al. 2010) has been referenced in the Communication on the Innovation Union (SEC 2010),
>accessed 16 september 2011) Area No. Issue code Key words from issue description (optional) Save natural resources (water,
and loss of ecosystems services 6 DS13 Attacks on infrastructure facilities 6 DS15 A major war by 2020 6 DS81 Pervasive sensors for real-time surveillaanc widely diffused Global
and its impacts will be felt more intensely in the period 2025 50. According to the OECD (2008), 2. 8 billion,
or 44%,of the world's population lives in areas of high water stress. There is a risk of global water bankruptcy due to humanity's consistent underpricing of water and its consequent waste and overuse.
T. Ko nno la et al. crowds'(Duboff 2007) which suggests that the engagement of a large number of scanners helps draw attention to phenommen that qualify as indicators of emerging policy issues.
however, this type ofbottom-up'process implies that the list of prioritized issues may not be very coherent (Bunn and Salo 1993.
One may therefore wish to strive for a traceability that allows users to explore which issues a given cluster was built from and
2012) concluded that the analysis of signals and emerging issues as well as ensuing workshops need to be structured around specific policy challenges
2012) consider three ideal-type models for FTA, namely:.individual projects or programmes of limited duration and with targeted objectives. dedicated units providing continuous input to their embedding
or mother organizations. networks as informal yet stable settings that allow for the bundling or coordination of resources and competencies Following this classification,
which increases its relevaanc for initiatives such as the European Forum on Forward Looking Activities and the Joint Programming in Research (Ko nno la et al. 2012).
Time for the EU to meet global challenges'which has informed the strategy processes of BEPA and JRC, has influenced also other stakeholders,
Notes 1. See<http://horizonscanning. defra. gov. uk>accessed 26 september 2011. See also Schultz (2006. 2. Effie Amanatidou, Anette Braun, Ville Brummer and Mika Mannermaa supported JRC-IPTS in reviewing four out of the six areas. 3. During the International Seville Conference
2008 on Future-oriented technology analysis abig picture'survey was conducted on trends, drivers, wild cards, discontinuities and weak signals likely to share the future (Saritas and Smith 2011).
The particularly novel issues from this survey were added to the issues collected from the literature review. 4. These issues plus the 73 additional issues identified by the survey participants can be found at<http://foresight. jrc. ec. europa. eu/bepa. html
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Fraunhofer future markets: From global challenges to dedicated, technological, collaborative research projects Kerstin Cuhls1,,*Alexander Bunkowski2 and Lothar Behlau2 1fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation research, Breslauer Straße 48,76139 Karlsruhe,
and Ruprecht-Karls-University of Heidelberg, Akademiestraße 4 8, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany 2fraunhofer Gesellschaft, Headquarters, Hansastraße 27 C, 80686 Mu nchen, Germany
*Corresponding author. Email: kerstin. cuhls@isi. fraunhofer. de One urgent mission for European research is to focus on the grand challenges of our time.
We discuss how this mission was incorporated into a Fraunhofer corporate programme that takes on global challenges by stimulating collaborative research projects across knowledge domains.
Fraunhofer's mission is to conduct innovation-oriented research for the benefit of private and public enterprises as well as society in general.
As a decentralised organisation, Fraunhofer's strategic R&d planning predominantly takes place at the level of its 60 institutes and its six groups of institutes, each with similar technological scope.
The idea The Lund Declaration (Lund Declaration 2009) formulated a request that European research should focus on the grand challenges of our time, moving beyond current rigid thematic approaches.
cities and organisattions Even the New framework ProgrammeHorizon 2020'will stress programmes that are based onsocial challenges'(European commission 2011:
This process is repeated every three years (Klingner and Behlau 2008. In order to differentiate from the rather technologydriive processes of the past,
a new approach was sought. This new strategy process should orient itself more towards demand-driven questions. That means following the principles of corporate social responsibility and developing new ways for Fraunhofer research markets of the future.
The idea fits well with the Fraunhofer mission, Science and Public policy 39 (2012) pp. 232 244 doi:
10.1093/scipol/scs018 The Author 2012. Published by Oxford university Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email:
what we shouldaddress'as a global challenge (see Lund Declaration 2009; EU 2011 or the different definitions given during the presentations at the Innovation Convention, held 5 6 december 2011 in Brussels). Some institutions and companies have lists of megatrends and regard them as global challenges.
Some go even further and try to identify what is lying ahead without looking into the past.
Global challenges therefore represent different strands of issues (authors'own observation:.Some selected trends ormegatrends'that are observed in a global context..
All global challenges are valid for a longer term (more than 20 years, some even say more than 50 years).
Some global challenges have multiple dimensions, so that:..the current government systems are incapable of tackling current and future global interconnected challenges.
Boden et al. 2010: 24) The challenges to developing countries are also becoming global. Different publications or internal papers can be discusssed
in order to give some examples of these different views of global challenges that were starting points for the Fraunhofer considerations. 2. 1. 1 First example.
In parallel with the Lund Declaration (2009), the European commission published some brochures about thechallenges'.'One isThe World in 2025'(EU Commission 2009),
which argues about trends, tensions and major transitions. Here the (mega-)trends and the global problems are derived from thetensions'described in this approach.
Trends mentioned are (EU Commission 2009: 11ff):.) The Asian century is approaching, with nearly twothiird of the world's population living in Asia (in 2025), with increasing inequalities and Asia as the first producer and exporter of the world..
Under the headline of poverty and mobility of men and women, it is assumed that international migrations will develop and, without an important inflow of immigrants,
the European population would start to decrease from 2012. A third of the world's population is undernourished.
and cultural distance (EU Commission 2009: 19ff) In this context, transitions are assumed to be:.towards a multi-polar world and world governance. towards a new universalism (political-cultural transition.
'demographic change andactive ageing'(EU Commission 2009: 19ff) These transitions are considered also to bemegatrends'in other publications.
The termmegatrends'was used originally by Naisbitt (1984) and was taken up in Germany by popular trend searchers like Horx (2007) who defines them as the:..
blockbusters of the forces that change. In a hierarchical trend system, they are active at different levels.
Megatrends have a half-life of at least 50 years, are resistant to set-backs and show impacts in all areas of the lives of human beings.
Some researchers from different areas made use of these approaches and setmegatrends'as a framework or a driver for their scenarios (Kolz et al. 2012 forthcoming.
They were even part of a Delphi survey (Cuhls et al. 2002; Blind et al. 2001) to highlight topics that should be assessed in science and technology.
Megatrends are used also as a part of the evaluation in market studies and analysis (Frost and Sullivan, 2010.
2. 1. 2 Second example. The State of the Future reports of the UN Millennium Project can be regarded as another source formegatrends'and long-lasting challenges for the future.
The Millennium Project is designed to provide an ongoing capacity as an intellectually, geographically, and institutionally dispersed think-tank.
It is designed to provide an independent, global capacity that is interdisciplinary, interinstitutional, and multicultural for early alert and analysis of long-range issues, opportunities, challenges and strategies.
The information generated is made available through a variety of media for consideration in policy-making, advanced training
see Glenn et al. 2009; for a brief introduction see Cuhls 2008. These reports served as a basis for the challenges for the Fraunhofer Society (see below.
2. 1. 3 Third example. The challenges pointed out in the State of the Future reports are based on the UN Millennium Challenges and Goals Project (2005.
The goals are transferred into strategic targets. The Millennium Development Goals as a focus for action (see also Cuhls 2008 and citations there are listed in Table 1. These targets
and global goals can be described aslarge permanent problems'.'Some have been known for a long time, but still remain problematic
They are not dealing with sudden events orwild cards'(in the sense of Steinmu ller and Steinmu ller 2004;
Steinmu ller 2011) and all of them have been ongoing problems for a long time so at the same time, they are based on trends or megatrends.
To the best knowledge of the present authors, the State of the Future report is the most comprehensive
therefore as an appropriate starting point for the Fraunhofer Future markets process. 2. 1. 4 Fourth example.
The Fraunhofer list (internal paper) of 2006 included: technology megatrends, converging technologies,biologilisation',miniaturisation, intelligent environments etc.
These developments were addressed directly in the Fraunhofer foresight process at that time (Klingner et al. 2008. 2. 1. 5 Fifth example.
The new version of the Germanhightech strategy'1 (Bundesministerium fu r Bildung und Forschung 2010) has defined needs-oriented fields (Bedarfsfelder in German) and key technologies as a frame
For this, we need first of all to look at the Fraunhofer Society itself. 3. The Fraunhofer approach 3. 1 Strategic R&d planning within the Fraunhofer governance model Future-oriented technology analysis (FTA APPROACHES have been used within corporate strategic R&d planning at Fraunhofer for several years.
With a total budget of E1. 65 billion in 2010, Fraunhofer is the largest contract research organisation in Europe.
and targets of UN Millennium Challenges Goal 1 Eradicate extreme hunger and poverty Target 1 Halve between 1990 and 2015,
proportion of people whose income is less than US$1 a day Target 2 Halve, between 1990 and 2015,
proportion of people who suffer from hunger Goal 2 Achieve universal primary education Target 3 Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere,
boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling Goal 3 Promote gender equality
and empower women Target 4 Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005,
and at all levels of education no later than 2015 Goal 4 Reduce child mortality Target 5 Reduce by two-thirds,
between 1990 and 2015, under-five mortality rate Goal 5 Improve maternal health Target 6 Reduce by three-quarters, between 1990 and 2015, maternal mortality ratio Goal 6 Combat HIV/AIDS,
malaria and other diseases Target 7 have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse spread of HIV/AIDS Target 8 have halted by 2015
and begun to reverse incidence of malaria and other major diseases Goal 7 Ensure environmental sustainability Target 9 Integrate principles of sustainable development into country policies
and programs and reverse loss of environmental resources Target 10 Halve, by 2015, proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation Target 11 have achieved by 2020 a significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers Goal 8
Develop a global partnership for development Target 12 Develop further an open, rule-based predictable non-discriminatory trading
One of the approaches is described in Klingner and Behlau (2008. Successful implementation of such processes achieves several goals:
and results should be quickly implementable to create the maximum impact in the organisation in the shortest possible time. 3. 2 Former future-oriented processes at Fraunhofer (technology-driven) In 2004,
This first approach was followed by a second process in 2008 (Klingner and Behlau 2008. In this approach, the analysis of foresight studies was only a small work package followed by an internal survey to generate topics.
so that ultimately 12 future topics were formulated (Klingner and Behlau 2008). Although the processes differed slightly in the methodology used,
and technologydriiven the starting point of the processes was technologies and technological approaches. Both processes were started to enhance
and evaluated as the starting point. Experts with different technological backgrounds met in workshops to discuss
'At the end of the 2005 and 2008 FTA PROCESSES, 12 innovation topics, that became 12 Fraunhofer future topics were defined.
However, dedicated internal funding for each topic was not inherent in the process. 3. 3 Rationale for a new 2010 future-oriented process (demand-driven) The rationale of the Fraunhofer approach started with the assumption that there are obviously science
The Lund Declaration (2009) made clear that: European research must focus on the grand challenges of our time moving beyond current rigid thematic approaches.
This calls for a new deal among European institutions and Member States, in which European and national instruments are aligned well
The aim of the 2010 process was that, ultimately, each future topic would be promoted and developed by at least one dedicated (and centrally funded) R&d project of significant size.
That meansreal'prototypes or results developed in a collaborative manner are expected from the projects Section 4 explains this process in more detail. 4. Methodology of the 2010 process 4. 1 The concept of the 2010 future-oriented
A needs-oriented approach and cross-institute problem-solving should open up new contract research markets in a 3 7 year perspective,
i e. an actual market perspective of 5 10 years. The process had a first top-down part, in
The specific challenges served as a framework for the second bottom-up, part of the process. Within a competitive call, institutes teamed up to develop technological solutions to the challenges in the form of collaborative project proposals.
The most convincing projects were funded internally. 4. 2 Deriving Fraunhofer-specific challenges from global challenges The 2009 State of the Future report of the UN Millennium Project was chosen (Glenn et al. 2009) as a starting point for deriving the Fraunhofer
The 14th issue (Glenn et al. 2009) was used. The following process steps were performed to distill specific Fraunhofer challenges from the report:(
The most convincing proposals received substantial funding for three years. A second round of calls was successful
The consortia had five months to formulate their project proposals. The evaluation panel consisted of senior Fraunhofer scientists and external experts.
E5 million in funding for each challenge within the Future markets programme are to be spent (starting in 2011.
There are three years to execute the projects. In the end, aresult'has to be presented. The jury selected five convincing projects addressing three Fraunhofer challenges:.
A four-year strategic plan is defined in an interactive manner with the ministries. The plan fixes the direction for the coming years.
The theme lines of the strategy plan are developed then in top-down processes. In addition, TNO hasenabling technologies'programmes..
mass customisation Change in work Individual is a lifetime entrepreneur, time and location flexibility, and mental flexibility necessary (lifelong learning), greater importance of women in business and society Increasing mobility and transport Due to increasing global flows of goods and leisure Increasing
Sum 25 5 137 Table 4. Second Round Round 2 Challenge Project ideas Selected Projects Teams involved Mobility 6 tbd
The five research projects that were selected started in 2011, so it is too early to evaluate their concrete impacts.
and outlook Using global challenges as a starting point for an internal FTA PROCESS within the corporate strategic R&d planning was a new approach for Fraunhofer.
Other institutes were involved often quite late in the development and formulation of the problem-solving process.
Central moderation of the problem-solving as a kickoff of the application phase is necessary in order to identify solutions with high impact and to foster collaborative aspects.
Fraunhofer future markets. 243 The authors of this paper were involved in the concept and practical application of the 2010 Fraunhofer futureorieente process.
Notes 1. See<http://www. hightech-strategie. de/de/81. php>accessed 15 july 2011. This is the strategy of the German government in science and technology fields,
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