Furthermore, different sorts of things might be prioritissed including scientific fields, industrial areas, research facilities, types of research performing institutes, and so on.
therefore between thematic priorities concerned with scientific fields, technology areas, industrial sectors, issues, etc. and structuura priorities concerned with issues such as research infrastructures, higher education teaching programmes, innovation promotion initiatives, venture capital markets,
Workshop Exploratory Workshop‘Long list'of research domains Initial assessment Selection of broad research fields Stakeholder workshops No formal input General Challenges for Luxembourg Expert workshops per field SWOT Analysis Initial
The subsequent series of thematic field workshops aimed to (redefine or review7 the research domains identified in Phase 1,
the ranked research domains within thematic fields were considered often to be framed poorly, incomparable for ranking purposes, unrepresentative of the interests of researchers,
Thematic field Research area Research domain Research axis Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Environmental sciences Global change and ecosystem Water management Drinking water
Law, Economy and Finance and Social sciences and Humanities. 7. Since the thematic fields had been analysed and structured to different levels of depth during the first phase,
The objectives, challenges and fields for action to be tackled in order to reach this position were translated into a set of concrete measures, some
which the city tries to influence that field. It gave the key policy actors a clear and visible place in the process
fields of action and kickoff projects of the official RTI-strategy. As a consequence, the modes of operation of the panels were quite diverse
therti process‘Wien denkt Zukunft'identified five key fields for action on which the City of Vienna will concentrate its future RTI policy (see Figure 2):(1) Human resources
The goal of activities in this field is to make better use of the city's enormous human resource potential.
Figure 2. Main fields of action and associated kickoff projects. focus on gender issues and parts of the population that have been neglected in the past (e g. university graduates with a migration background).(
'several concrete proposals for new projects or initiatives were developed in the five fields of action.
(1 Under the title of a‘Keynote Programme'for the specific fields of research in the humanities, the social and cultural sciences (on the side of the already well established programmes for Downloaded by University of Bucharest at 05:10 03 december 2014 Trade-offs
Under the slogan‘Vienna research in dialogue',the City will address essential contemporary and future issues in the field of science, research and technology.
implicit agendas and objectives had to be made more explicit to provide the basis for the joint definition of future challenges, fields of action and kickoff projects;
and scholars have discussed the value of a futures approach in the field of community planning as not necessarily‘in discovering new factual knowledge about sustainable urban developmment
however, did not necessarily link to well-established fields of scientific inquiry or innovation activity.
In addition to scientific fields and technological areas, even other dimensions of balance had to be addressed (e g. gender issues, representation of geographical regions.
This made it possible to ensure that several dimensions of balance (including gender, regions, representation of scientific fields, technological areas,
Items in the template included questions on (i) what scientific fields and technological areas the focus areawas linked to,(ii)
moreover, there was a need to achieve a balance of scientific and technological fields, to ensure that the conclusions would be well-founded
(thus mitigating the possibility that some fields would be under-or over-represented due to a less controlled process of inviting participants).
and merging empirical/analytical methods with stakeholder engagement processes 5. The positioning was aimed at perceived overlapping fields of practice among technology foresight, forecasting, intelligence, roadmapping, and assessment.
and foresight as the generic term for the field encompassing most, if not all of the approaches listed above.
even if the field is not ready to tolerate a new collective term. 2 This leads to the second persistent theme.
These can include articulation within a field (as expounded by Schoen et al. in their paper)
or what they call the‘field-specific knowledge dynamics 'and the institutional arrangements pertaining in that field.
Their guiding principle is‘no one-size fits all across sectors. They argue that this tailored approach should be adopted in the development of the European research area.
toward integration of the field and new methods, Technological forecasting and Social Change 71 (2004) 287 303, in press. 2 T. J. Gordon, J. C. Glenn (Eds.
and renewing theoretical underpinnings of the Futures field: a pressing and long-term challenge, Futures 41 (2009) 67 70.8 I. Miles, From futures to foresight, in:
Tailoring Foresight to field specificities§Antoine Schoen a,,*Totti Ko nno la b, 1, Philine Warnke c, 2, Re'mi Barre'd, 3, Stefan Kuhlmann e, 4 a Universite
The theoretical framework is elaborated by applying it in two R&i fields:(i) GM plants and (ii) Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies.
which reflects the dynamics of knowledge production (for R&i) that are shaping the various techno-scientific fields.
first in the area of genetically modified plants and then for the domain of Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies. 2. Background and rationale 2. 1. Tailoring Foresight a revision During the last two decades the field of Foresight has developed a lot through practical experience
In this paper we address the issue of the tailoring of Foresight with respect to themes or field,
The need to tailor policy instruments to the characteristics of the targeted field is grounded well in insights from research on the dynamics of innovation and knowledge generation.
In an early attempt to explore dependency between field dynamics and Foresight success the FORMAKIN project highlighted how Foresight works differently in close
and innovation system This section presents a concept for analysing the institutional arrangements characterising the R&i system in a given research field.
complemented by a thematic perspective focussing on a given field of research area. Barre''s analytical perspective builds on various theoretical concepts:
that research agencies and large PROS may prepare the overall strategic analysis in a field
in order to provide support in the definition of Foresight objectives within the field configurations. Foresight objectives have been defined by 27 as follows:
-different thematic fields refer to different‘search regimes'characterising their mode and dynamics of knowledge production which impact the state of play in each cell of the matrix, hence the proper Foresight design.
In the next section, we will analyse the search regimes that are shaping the development of research in the fields selected for the case studies.
programming and performing is driven partly by the content and the dynamics of research activities and by the innovation patterns and interactions of different thematic fields or sectors(‘‘Knowledge dynamics''.
On the contrary one can assume that dynamics are differentiated depending on fields and sectors 43. The first component of field configuration relates to Knowledge dynamics building on Bonaccorsi's initial proposal
which has distinguished three abstract properties explaining differences between science-led areas. Growth. The rate of growth differs widely between fields.
According to the‘World of Science'the average yearly growth of publications is around 1, %while e g. genomics has been growing for the last 10 years at 8,
/Futures 43 (2011) 232 242 236 For instance, the progressive sliding of the field of biocatalysis away from‘catalysis'within chemistry towards biotechnologies illustrates an actual reconfiguration of a current knowledge area that is combining splitting and merging
we explore the implications of field specificities on the Foresight activities taking place in the three governance arenas identified in Section 2. 1. We will present two illustrative cases:
then we will elaborate the designs of the Foresight exercises fitted to the specific Knowledge dynamics and institutional arrangements in these two fields. 5. 1. The case of genetically modified plants (GMP) After the completion of the human genome map in 2001,
the field of genomics sometimes labelled as post-genomics has diversified, exploring further the systemic epigenetic complexity of protein production beyond the one gene-one function paradigm that shaped the initial researches.
Two other key elements are contributing to the future of this research field. 1) EU institutions have had a prominent legal role by delaying the introduction of GM crop in Europe.
The research field of GM plant is characterised by a strong growth of the number of articles.
The cognitive proliferation that keeps blooming in the field of genomics is challenging some early applications of plant genomics research jeopardising thus their industrial applications.
towards a Tailored foresight In the field of GM plants research we find a strong growth rate
On a closer look the needs for Foresight can be specified on the base of the field analysis. It seems unlikely that the existence of consensual visions focussing on GM research alone will be sufficient
To address field specificities for Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies, we will examine first institutional arrangements and later on Knowledge dynamics. 5. 2. 1. N&n:
European commission has developed an active policy in the field of N&n policy. It displays explicitly among the EU policies one dedicated to Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies.
The European Technology platform for Nanoelectronics European Nanoelectronics Initiative Advisory Council (ENIAC) was launched in 2004 with the mission to bring together all leading players in the field
The high growth rate which characterises the field (the number of scientific publication has grown from 134%between 1998 and 2006) 46.
Growth in the field of N&n is considered as a divergent dynamics, which has also been deemed as displaying proliferation traits:
the field of N&n is characterised by an important intra-paradigmatic diversity. Research programmes share fundamental explanations but diverge on lower level hypotheses
and networking within the Nano-paradigm as well as between Nano-research and other fields. An example of the latter type is the Mona roadmap13 aiming at better integration between optics and nanotechnology.
Both field dynamics were described using the selected parameters. Based on this analysis conclusions for potential Foresight exercises with a relevant contribution for the development of these fields were sketched.
Even though the analysis of the two cases could only be done in a very preliminary manner it proved possible to derive meaningful conclusions for the design of Foresight exercises.
For each field specific lock in situations to be tackled by Foresight were revealed. Both cases have revealed a strong institutional complementarity reflecting an early alignment of academia
and for nanotechnology appears as an interesting way for releasing current tensions that block this field of research a strategic orientation that could fit in a grand challengesbaase R&i policy 18.
in the field of nanotechnology the need to foster the forming of new value networks around nano-products
Exercise aimed to provide recommendations for EU R&d efforts as input for FP7 and Strategic research Agendas in two fields (Nanomaterials & Photonics.
field and the changing relation between discovery and invention, in: Presentation at the PRIME Winter School on Emerging Nanotechnologies, Grenoble, 4 8 february, 2008.48 A. Bonaccorsi, G. Thoma, Institutional complementarity and inventive performance in nano science and Technology research
Continuing advances in fields of complexity, nonlinear dynamics, and chaos theory in scientific as well as business applications turn up in abstract sets on a regular basis.
The more limited aim of articulating specific fields is noted. Recent trends in research and innovation policy have opened new opportunities for the application of foresight.
thematic priorities referring to fields of science and technology; mission-oriented priorities referring to socioeconomic or technological goals;
At one stage in the UK it was proposed that university block funding for research (QR) from the Higher education Funding Councils should be allocated differentially between fields according to their correspondence with priorities emerging from the foresight programmes.
and that in any event, the interdependencies between fields meant that anomalous results could arise. For example Information technology could be an explicit priority
toward integration of the field and new methods, Technological forecasting and Social Change 71 (3)( 2004) 287 303.2 T. Kuwahara, K. Cuhls, L. Georghiou, Foresight in Japan, in:
In both fields, in particular the development of alternative scenarios help addressing uncertainties and diverse interconnections between many drivers.
In the security, sustainability and information society fields, stakeholders have the possibility to develop scenarios on
and six fields were discussed by workshops independently. Autonomous There is freedom in discussion for social scenarios in each field,
and the priority setting of science and technology based on technology foresight. Extensive There was an extensive engagement of diversified stakeholders from government, academia and industry.
The attempt was not to make a global scan of the conducted foresight projects in these fields,
IRRIIS Scenario work was part of the European integrated project that provided improved understanding of the developments in the security field.
or emerging (technological field or when the issues are characterised by high uncertainties. This allows addressing diverse perspectives and scenarios as well as common vision-building.
in assessing market potentials, in various fields of applied social research. Many sorts of research tool can be sources of the insights required for FTA.
than it is a free market of ideas of a level playing field. Matters have improved over recent years with more journals,
Thus the FTA field itself resembles many of the challenging problems, which are the subject of FTA analysis. It is typical for decision-making about S&t-related issues to require intelligence that extends well beyond
Dawson 20 after Nonka and Takeuchi 19.9 For a much fuller survey of the field,
involving overlapping fields of expertise, ill-defined, and so on as is the case for many of the core topics that FTA addresses design of such texts can be very challenging.
l p x E e g d e l w o n k t i c i l p x E Field building Linking explicit knowledge Dialogue Learning by doing Socialization
This is an expanding field (with elements of fashion and faddishness. There are fissures between those practitioners
In the UK, there had been major scenario work on strategies for developing a competitive edge in nanotechnology and literature/expert surveying of social issues associated with this field, in the early years of the present century.
Strategic intelligence for an Innovative economy, Springer, Berlin, 2008.2 W. Bell, J. K. Olick, An epistemology for the futures field:
toward integration of the field & new methods, Technological forecasting and Social Change 71 (3)( 2004) 287 303.4 R. Johnston, Historical review of the development of future-oriented technology analysis, in:
Both of these fields have been evolving since the 1960s. Similarly, the continuing pressure for the public participation in science and technology decision-making processes, elsewhere called a‘democratic deficit'and coming from Greenpeace, the Friends of the Earth, the ETC Group,
1. Rapid and accelerating technological progress in pervasive fields such as microelectronics, ICTS, biotechnology, new materials, fuel cells and nanotechnologies. 2. Increased financial, trade and investment
or a field concerned and analysing how the phenomena reflected by the weak signals should be reacted on. 4 There remains some confusion about the definition of weak signal by various researchers and consultants.
Overall, the lists provide a fertile field for some real dramatic change scenarios centred on some key discontinuities.
and evaluating the impact of fta has emerged as a major preoccupation for the field in recent years, with the recognition that demonstrating impact is probably the greatest hurdle to the wider acceptance and use of FTA.
In this field a distinction has been developed between summative evaluation, focussed on measuring impact, and normative evaluation,
as much as researchers in various other fields identifying with and migrating to the FTA field.
In this scenario, several new applications of FTA have been identified 9. It is important to highlight that an effective Conference can provide a‘showcase'of the field,
providing an opportunity to display and talk up the latest FTA wares to those who may have need a to apply them.
field and the major challenges it faces. The context is favourable. Recent crises and the threat of major longer-term changes are fostering a view that business as usual approaches are not capable of addressing these challenges.
to demonstrate the diversity of application fields in which FTA METHODS are being used and to offer a glimpse into possible consequences that grand challenges may imply for the development of FTA.
only a restricted number of papers could be included in this Special issue highlighting the broad diversity of FTA application fields in response to grand challenges.
and systemic transformations in a diversity of application fields responding to grand challenges. The presentations comprised themes surrounding creative futures, energy, governance, health, horizon scanning, innovation and sustainability, law, mobility, nanotechnology, and others.
In this context, this introductory paper provides an overview of selected FTA 2011 conference contributions and the diversity of application fields in
modeling techniques and backcasting) may bring to three specific legal fields: legal research, legislative drafting and law enforcement.
A problem-oriented categorisation of FTA METHODS for transport planning Jens Schippl and Torsten Fleischer Abstract Purpose As in other socio-technical fields, future-oriented technology analysis (FTA METHODS are used in transport planning
and methods that can be allocated to the field of Future-oriented technology analysis (FTA, see Scapolo and Porter (2008) for an overview).
In general, the decision to undertake a trip is motivated by very different factors drawn from all fields relevant in daily life,
Political interventions into this field have many effects within the system, but also various impacts outside the transportation sector.
In relation to the typology of levels of knowledge described in chapter 2 it can be concluded that models are focussed mainly on improving knowledge in the field of knowns.
A third example for this field is multi-criteria analysis (MCA), also termed multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) or multi-objective decision-making.
There are a huge variety of possible combinations in this field, which is illustrated briefly here with the help of two methodological examples:
and deepen knowledge in a certain field. They help identifying uncertainties, blind spots, contradictions or dilemmas.
Such a method could have been interviews with experts or stakeholders from different fields not only form the transport sector.
The latter can be highly relevant in complex socio-technical fields such as the transport sector. Such a problem-oriented categorisation of FTA METHODS supports a better understanding of the potentials of different methods.
Risk Commission (2003), Ad hoc Commission on‘‘Revision of Risk analysis Procedures and Structures as well as of Standard Setting in the field of Environmental Health in the Federal republic of germany'',Final Report, Salzgitter Federal Radiological
other than some postgraduate foresight programs (provided on the basis that foresight is an interdisciplinary field grounded in a variety of social science),
so has limited some work in the foresight field, Ringland (2010) and Miller and Poli (2010),
The participants represented various fields of societal expertise such as government administration NGOS, energy business and researchers of various fields,
as well as representatives from various business areas. The results of the first questionnaire were sent in advance to those who had confirmed their participation to the workshop.
and create jobs in that field. In the evaluation of government foresight report by Wilenius (2011), attention was drawn to the fact that the government foresight report could have dug deeper into the economic implications of climate and energy policy
the level of the research groups, the technological field and the society. This three-level framework allows the analyst to study different perspectives of a specific case
For example, there is a visible increase in the number of linkages between the heterogeneous actors together in search of defining the newly emerging field or technology.
and decisions taken earlier 6. These emerging irreversibilities reduce the complexity of the situation 7. How do emerging irreversibilities affect the actors operating in the field?
and reshaped by research results, findings in other technical fields, or external forces. In general, expectations mould variation processes
i) locally, within a firm or research group,(ii) more general, within a technical scientific field, and (iii) more global and diffuse, in society at large (see Fig. 3). The vertical dimension lists the three levels of aggregation.
R. O. van Merkerk, H. van Lente/Technological forecasting & Social Change 72 (2005) 1094 1111 1097 technological field, with its dedicated journals, conferences and communities.
NGO's and other societal actors articulate the social, political and economic aspects of the new technological field.
Society Technological field (Research group Basic research Market Fig. 2. Questions that are raised in order to address the dynamics of expectations and processes of agenda building.
and potentials of applications Articles in scientific journals Review articles that give an overview of the developments in the field Society Technological field (Research group Basic research Market Reports by NGO's Reports by government agencies Spokesperson statements
nanotubes used in nonvolatile memories, the level of the technological field; nanotubes in electronic devices, the level of the society;
However, the fact that nanotubes offer great promises for various industries is acknowledged. 3. 1. 2. Technological field After the discovery of the single-walled nanotube in 1993,
This opens up the possibility to use them as so-called field emitters to produce flat (even flexible) displays.
Technological field None of the expected possible applications have come to a successful commercialisation yet. Therefore, basic research as well as efforts from the market side is focussed on realising the applications.
Society Technological field (Research group Market Basic research Fig. 7. Main findings located within the three-level framework.
deposition), the prototype and the proof of compatibility brought to the field are emerging irreversibilities. These developments showed the academic
Nanotubes in electronic devices More research groups work on similar problems related to nanotube applications Society Technological field (Research group Basic research Market Fig. 8. Emerging irreversibilities located within the three-level framework.
basic scientific results at the level of the research groups can influence the level of the technological field,
and discussion In this paper we proposed a route to deal with the intrinsic uncertainties of a new emerging field like nanotechnology.
The oblivion of future studies in the urban planning field was denounced several years ago by practitioners and researchers (Isserman, 1985;
as well as private consultants conducting professional work in that field, are very reluctant to use future studies in their plans and projects.
These reasons explain to some extent the scant attention paid by urban planners in the last few decades to the revision and reinvention of futures studies as a field of practical knowledge.
innovative research efforts geared to bridging the gap between these two fields of knowledge. 4. How to reconcile territorial foresight and urban planning Despite its apparent benefits,
since most of the proposed steps have been used implicitly or explicitly in the urban planning field, its uniqueness emerges Figure 2 Linking foresight
and contrast instruments with parsimony in a little-explored field of knowledge. 6. Main findings
In 2010 she started to work as a researcher in the field of futures studies, focusing on the development of an innovative foresight approach to identify major trends
modelling techniques and backcasting) may bring to three specific legal fields: legal research, legislative drafting and law enforcement.
along with the broader field of future studies) have come together to discuss and learn from each other.
As Johnston (2008) noted, the objective of the first of these seminars‘‘was to analyse possible overlapping fields of practice between technology foresight, forecasting, intelligence, roadmapping, and assessment.''
''Furthermore, the number of studies focused on the connection between FTA and the field of social sciences and humanities has increased substantially (Barre'and Keenan, 2008.
Regarding the application of fta to other fields of knowledge and inquiry, Cagnin and Keenan (2008) have called attention to the need for a wider examination of FTA TOOLS and approaches.
In a rather unusual initiative within the general framework of legal research, The hague Institute for the Internationalisation of Law (Hiil) began in 2010‘‘a unique forward-looking exercise in the field of law:
At a more general level, the increasing availability of information in electronic form and the computing techniques and processes for exploiting such data constitute the most recent methodological developments in the field of FTA.
Still within the field of lawmaking, modelling systems could be combined with other FTA METHODS, such as backcasting and future verification procedures.
Important advantages derived from applying FTA to Law can also be found in the field of law enforcement,
drawing attention to the focal points of needed research in this field. 4. 2. 1 Evaluation, assessment and quality measurement.
The legislative preparatory phase may be depicted as a battle field, where a myriad of different actors and institutions try to orient specific laws according to their own different (and sometimes opposite) motivations, objectives and goals.
where sectors or fields fight for resources and where no one is ever likely to envisage their own demise,
For an overview of the main issues and challenges associated with the combination between quantitative and qualitative methods in the field of FTA,
political paradigms have changed, EU legislation and international competition leave less room for direct governmental activities in many technological fields.
According to this definition (but also interpreting other widely used descriptions of the field), nanotechnology is neither a specific technology nor is it a definite group of technologies.
Most activities that are considered as R&d in the field of nanotechnology are basic or applied research rather than technology development.
The segment of dnanotechnologyt that is closest to a widespread application is the field of dnanomaterialst.
Nanomaterials are an essential part of the overall field of nanotechnology. They can be T. Fleischer et al./
As so-called, denabling technologies',they are technological prerequisites for numerous innovations in many technological fields from comparatively simple technologies for every day use (like cosmetics or pigments in paints),
and/or technology. 4. 2. Roadmapping as a precursor of a TA process for specific nanotechnology applications The situation described above rather broad and largely unstructured field of investigation, mostly enabling technologies at early stages of development,
There is a growing need to connect current nanotechnology research activities with visions of applications as well as to structure this field of investigation.
Its central goal is to obtain a well-structured connection between R&d activities in this field and potential fields of application and ideas for products.
or finished roadmapping activities in or around the field of dnanotechnologyt see e g. 11 14.
Structure the research field visualise complexity;!Enable and teach interdisciplinary communication which for nanotechnology researchers is of special importance;!
Among other goals, the project aims at structuring the R&d field of nanomaterials, at building a knowledge base for further detailed investigations about the potential of nanomaterials, especially with regard to sustainable development,
and what further benefits of the roadmapping process beyond structuring the field of nanotechnology can be expected. 5. Summary
We propose an adaptation of the concept of science roadmapping and its application to selected segments of the overall field of nanotechnology.
inter alia, structuring the research field, linking research activities with visions of products and applications and supporting more reliable judgements on the realism of or hurdles for innovations discussed.
toward integration of the field and new methods, Technol. Forecast. Soc. Change 71 (3)( 2004) 287 303.
He has a background in physics with emphasis in the field of semiconductors and solar cells.
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