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experiences from the innovation policy foresight and strategy process of the City of Vienna K. Matthias Weber a, Klaus Kubeczko a, Alexander Kaufmann a & Barbara Grunewald a a Austrian Institute of technology, Department Foresight
and Policy development, Vienna, Austria Published online: 12 oct 2009. To cite this article: K. Matthias Weber, Klaus Kubeczko, Alexander Kaufmann & Barbara Grunewald (2009) Trade-offs between policy impacts of future-oriented analysis:
experiences from the innovation policy foresight and strategy process of the City of Vienna, Technology analysis & Strategic management, 21:8, 953-969, DOI:
experiences from the innovation policy foresight and strategy process of the City of Vienna K. Matthiasweber*,Klaus Kubeczko, Alexander Kaufmann and Barbara Grunewald Austrian Institute of technology, Department Foresight and Policy development, Vienna
, Austria In 2006 the City ofvienna launched a foresight and strategy process to revisit its urban research and innovation policy.
objectives and results of the Viennese innovation policy foresight and strategy process and the different impact dimensions will be analysed
Finally, some generic lessons learned from the Viennese experience will be discussed. Keywords: foresight; strategy process; innovation policy; policy impact 1. Introduction In 2006, the City of Vienna initiated a far-reaching and open strategy process on the orientation of its future research, technology and innovation (RTI) policy.
The aim was to develop, in a participatory process, a comprehensive strategic framework as well as concrete proposals for*Corresponding author.
By then, Vienna is aiming to be among Europe's leading metropolitan areas in research, technology and innovation,
The foresight experience of the City of Vienna will be discussed against this framework. First, we introduce the impact assessment framework (Section 2). Then the main features of the process design (Section 3)
science, technology and innovation policies give the thematic portfolio of a country or region a greater weight again and pay more attention to long-term perspectives.
which the experiences and impacts of the innovation policy foresight of the City of Vienna will be assessed,
and implementation Vienna is the key centre for science and research in Austria as well as in the wider central European area to
Austria is recognised increasingly as one of the leading European countries in research. Austria has accomplished major structural reforms, affecting universities as well as research funding bodies, many
of which are located in Vienna. Simultaneously, several Austrian regions have initiated or reinforced their RTI policies. Vienna already launched an active RTI policy in the early 1990s;
almost twenty years later the city is confronted with the necessity to revisit its RTI policy landscape.
At the same time, new challenges were identified that have to be tackled in order to keep pace with the international developments in science, technology and innovation,
and took first exploratory steps towards identifying future challenges for the RTI policy of the City of Vienna. 4 The research programme was implemented as a joint undertaking by the City of Vienna and Austrian Research centres.
the suggestion of launching a participatory foresight process as part of the research programme was rejected by the representatives of the City of Vienna in the management team of the programme.
which served as a backdrop for later elaborating elements of an RTI policy strategy for the city of Vienna.
Vienna as a centre of science. 3. 2. From fragmentation to strategic action:‘‘Wien denkt Zukunft'Following this preparatory phase,
it is captured not fully by The english translation‘Vienna Looks to the Future knowledge means change'.
report Public Forum Panel 2 Focus on research Panel 3 Science and Panel 4 Urban Panel report Panel report RTI-strategy Vienna Analysis of RTI
-policy in Vienna Panel report Opening Final event Figure 1. Process overview‘Wien denkt Zukunft'.
3) EU-policy;(4) Networking. These four crosscutting topics were regarded also as crucial for the future,
As a consequence, they should be addressed by all panels. 3. 3. Viennese RTI strategy goes public:
several Viennese organisations were not able to tell with whom they would cooperate on joint actions.
In this final phase, the role of the Municipal Department for EU Strategy and Economic development (MA 27) that was in charge of coordinating the entire foresight
the RTI-strategy of the City of Vienna was presented to an equally large audience of several hundred participants, backed by the mayor, city councillors and key stakeholders.
and objectives for optimising the process of research and innovation with the help of RTI policy measures as available to the City of Vienna and embedded in the other policy levels (national and European) exerting an influence on the research and innovation scene
which should be achieved by 2015 (City of Vienna 2007a):(1) Increase Vienna's research expenditures to 4%of the gross city product;(
2) 22,000 individuals employed in the R&d sector;(3) 800 companies engaged in R&d;(4) 20%of the population having a university degree;(
5) 200 SMES taking part in projects of the EU's Seventh Research Framework programme (FP7;(
(City of Vienna 2007a:(1) Making effective use of the potential for research, technology and innovation by creating adequate conditions for young people, irrespective of their origins,
5) Integrating Vienna's RTI in European networks and strengthening co-operation within the CENTROPE region in order to create a common RTI area that will successfully compete in Europe and in the world. 4. 3. From strategy to action:
the City of Vienna can provide stimuli for achieving the identified goals. Options for translating these goals into specific measures can be conceived along the lines of the main determinants of innovation ranging from push factors in the area of science (e g.
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
Bright Minds for Vienna: The goal of activities in this field is to make better use of the city's enormous human resource potential.
The three terms form a catchphrase to express the serious interest in strengthening the critical public dialogue about RTI, both within Vienna and on the international stage.
By means of a new set of measures called‘Vienna research in dialogue'a critical and continuous exchange of knowledge about RTI with the citizenry is to be fostered.
4) Vienna as a hothouse for research and innovation facilitating new developments: Further improvement of working conditions for scientists and creative individuals is called for by providing local networks as breeding grounds for invention and creativity.
5) A European location for research and innovation Vienna as a hub for international networks:
Vienna is to be established as the centre of international research networks, and of networks in the CENTROPE region in particular.
In this context, Vienna's network-based location of research and innovation will be strengthened further. 4. 4. Implementation the schedule for 2008 and beyond Based on the objectives,
Under the slogan‘Vienna research in dialogue',the City will address essential contemporary and future issues in the field of science, research and technology.
3) In revising the City of Vienna business promotion principles‘ZIT 08plus'more attention will be given to crosscutting issues of RTI policies,
In fact, in response to the economic crisis in early 2009, the City of Vienna decided to spend an additional¤60 million on research infrastructures and cutting-edge research as part of a broader economic and employment stimulus package.
and networked policymakkin approach in the City of Vienna. The departmental division of labour is quite strict,
In the Viennese case, the range of‘relevant actors'is limited rather and generally well known. Identifying‘new'actors is less the key point than integrating the known actors (e g. from neighbouring policy areas) into the debates about research and innovation.
and events (see City of Vienna 2007b), the Vienna strategy in the end restricted itself mainly to the short-and medium term
and explicitly left some of the more controversial long-term issues out (e g. issues of political governance).
A second reason must be seen in the early involvement of key actors in researchaan innovation-related organisations of the City of Vienna.
This concerns, for instance, the future role of the City of Vienna in the wider CENTRROP region.
and thus to the consideration of alternative futures had been addressed in the forward-looking part Downloaded by University of Bucharest at 05:10 03 december 2014 Trade-offs between policy impacts of future-oriented analysis 967 of the preceding research programme on the Viennese innovation system,
and strategy process had a quite significant impact on guiding the future research and innovation policy in Vienna, but the closeness to policy making implied that some of the exploratory and‘out-of-the-box'thinking that would usually be part of a foresight process was regarded not desirable
in cooperation with the City of Vienna. Klaus Kubeczko is Senior researcher at Austrian Institute of technology (AIT) in the Department of Foresight & Policy development.
City of Vienna. 2007a. Wiener Strategie für Forschung, Technologie und Innovation. Executive version, City of Vienna, November 2007.
City of Vienna. 2007b. Wiener Strategie für Forschung, Technologie und Innovation. Long version, City of Vienna, November 2007.
Dosi, G. 1988. The nature of the innovative process. In Technical change and economic theory, ed. G. Dosi, C. Freeman, R. R. Nelson, G. Silverberg and L. Soete, 221 38.
London: Pinter. EC. 2001. European governance: a White paper. Brussels: European commission. Edquist, C. ed. 1997. Systems of innovations:
Vienna: ARC Systems Research. Smith, K. 2000. Innovation as a systemic phenomenon: rethinking the role of policy.
Seville: IPTS. Downloaded by University of Bucharest at 05:10 03 december 2014 Trade-offs between policy impacts of future-oriented analysis 969 Smits, R,
Lessons for sustainability foresight in German utility sectors. Technological forecasting & Social Change 75, no. 9: 1360 72.
Vienna: ARGE Innovationsorientierte Nachhaltige Regionalentwicklung. Additional Internet sources: More Information (in German) on the foresight and strategy process is available at:
http://www. wiendenktzukunft. at www. wiendenktzukunft. at/downloads/strategie lang. pdf www. wiendenktzukunft. at/downloads/strategie kurz. pdf An English summary is available at:
such as the‘Young Foresight'programme for schools in the UK, the German Futur project, and‘Jugend denkt Zukunft',a countrywide cooperation programme between German businesses and schools.
During several presentations of the project, the project leaders showed an illustration figuring predators fighting over the right to decide area planning in Germany's capital Berlin (Figure 2).‘Why the young people?'
983 countries (i e. the advanced industrial nations), almost all European countries, and many Asian and South american countries have conducted national foresight studies'.
Development and perspectives of foresight in Germany. Technikfolgenabschätzung 12, no. 2: 20 8. Cuhls, K,
futur the German research dialogue. Research Evaluation 13, no. 3: 143 53. Cunliffe, A. 2005.
Paper presented at EU US seminar: the role of foresight in the selection of research policy priorities, 13 14 may 2002, Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS), Seville, Spain.
Johnston, R. 2008. Historical review of the development of future-oriented technology analysis. In Future-oriented technology analysis strategic intelligence for an innovative economy, ed. C. Cagnin, M. Keenan, R. Johnston, F. Scapolo,
Paper presented at second international Seville seminar on Future-oriented technology analysis (FTA), 28-29 september 2006, Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS), Seville, Spain.
/Inca Garcilaso, 3, E-41092, Seville, Spain Published online: 12 oct 2009. To cite this article:
binstitute for Prospective Technological Studies of the Joint research Centre of the European commission, Edificio Expo, C/Inca Garcilaso, 3, E-41092 Seville, Spain In 2005, the Finnish Government
and Section 5 concludes. 2. Finnsight in context In comparison with many other countries, Finland has had an active and varied foresight scene,
Germany and United kingdom, see Havas 2003; Durand 2003; Cuhls 2003; Keenan 2003. This may have been
because Finland is a small country: thus, some results from even seemingly isolated foresight activities can be brought to bear on policy making even in the absence of formal coordination,
Totti Könnölä is a scientific officer at the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies of the Joint research Centre of the European commission, Seville, Spain.
and may not in any circumstances be regarded as stating an official position of the European commission. 2. The Academy of Finland is comparable to the US National science Foundation
idnews Letter=117&idsommaire=3, http://www. energy-enviro. eu/index. php? PAGE=394&node id=394&lang=1 and http://www. risoe. dk/rispubl/art/2007 203 paper. pdf 9. The respondents included 57 out of the 120 panellists.
From forecasting to foresight processes new participative foresight activities in Germany. Journal of Forecasting 22, nos. 2 3: 93 111.
In its first iteration in 2004 it was billed as an EU-US Scientific Seminar but the scope has widened
These mapped a picture of FTA as an increasingly important approach in many countries across a wide range of challenges.
and the long wave, Futures 34 (3 4 april 2002) 317 336.5 F. Scapolo, New horizons and challenges for future-oriented technology analysis the 2004 EU-US seminar, Technological forecasting
luke. georghiou@mbs. ac. uk (L. Georghiou) jennifer. harper@gov. mt (J. C. Harper) fabiana. scapolo@ec. europa. eu (F
for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS), Edificio Expo, C/Inca Garcilaso, 3, E-41092 Seville, Spain c Fraunhofer-Institute for Systems and Innovation research ISI
, Breslauer Straße 48,76139 Karlsruhe, Germany d CNAM, 292 rue Saint-martin, 75003 Paris, France e Dept of Science, Technology,
a. schoen@esiee. fr (A. Schoen), totti. konnola@ec. europa. eu (T. Ko nno la), philine. warnke@isi. fraunhofer. de (P. Warnke
http://forlearn. jrc. ec. europa. eu. 7 COST Action A22: Advancing Foresight methodologies funded by the European Science foundation;
It is clear that the research priorities set at EU level are disconnected not from the Member States strategic choices (articulated by the European parliament and the Council.
At European level, strategic policy orientation takes place, firstly in the context of the process of elaboration of the EU research budget, mainly the framework programme,
with its formal interaction mechanisms linking the European parliament, the EU Commission and the Council (here, the Competitiveness Council).
This strategic steering of research is performed also through other transnational (non EU) policy frameworks of research policy integration, namely the intergovernmental institutions, such as CERN and ESA.
At European level, the arena of programming of research refers in the fist place to the coordination work performed by various directorates of the European commission for translating macroobjecctive (global amount allocated of resources along key orientations) set in the EU budget into thematic priorities along A. Schoen et al./
Federating EU instruments like Networks of Excellence (Noes) and large facilities which are organising research agenda at transnational levels are also to be considered as contributing to the programming of research.
Foresight Table 1 Elements characterising the three arenas of governance for R&i in the EU context.
EU Parliament European commission Council (Competitiveness Council) institutional triangle Board of the intergovernmental research institutions (CERN, ESA...
Arenas of governance Foresight objective Priority-setting Networking Building visions Strategic orientation Macro policy priority setting National/EU level stakeholders networks Overall political
This holds especially true for the regulatory dimension concerning especially the gene diffusion from modified organisms. 9 This cognitive tension appears in the persistent scientific controversies regarding this subject that Germany's ban on Monsanto GM maize
1) EU institutions have had a prominent legal role by delaying the introduction of GM crop in Europe.
but growing public concern over their supposed environmental and health risks led several EU countries to demand the moratorium.
By late 1999 there were enough such countries to block any new approvals of GM produce.
and from America and other big growers ofgmcrops, the EU then persuaded the anti-GM countries to replace the moratorium with a scheme in
Since then, six countries Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary and Luxembourg have chosen to ban Monsanto MON 810 modified maize contradicting EU Commission position.
The decrease of‘‘open air''researches in EU is striking when compared with the steady growth of the market for the products resulting from these explorations, for
GM plant research in Europe is performed within public and private labs. Two types of collaboration can de developed at EU level:(
2) International cooperation through EU FP projects. This stream remains limited. A total of 46 plant genomics projects has been funded within the whole FP6. 5. 1. 2. GMP:
and programming arena by a stronger institutional steering on EU level. 5. 2. The case of Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies (N&n) Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies (N&n) are seen as the‘top-down'miniaturisation movement of three domains:
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
''A set of EU instruments have been taken up for fostering European coordination, across national and sectoral borders.
is a Consortium of 17 national research agencies from 12 countries in the European research area whose objective is the coordination of the national policies in fundamental research at the nanometric scale.
Examples are the EU FP6 Nanologue project14 where different products for different socio-technical scenarios were envisaged or the strategy articulation workshops in the framework of the Dutch Nanoned initiative (e g. 49 51.
ERA is, in short, the integration/coordination of research and innovation policies between the EU and Member States 13 Mona:
Exercise aimed to provide recommendations for EU R&d efforts as input for FP7 and Strategic research Agendas in two fields (Nanomaterials & Photonics.
Acknowledgements This paper is based on a workshop organised by the JRC-IPTS European foresight Action at Seville, Spain, June 2008.
(ERA), European commission, Luxembourg, 2008.19 D. Braun, Special issue on‘‘The political coordination of knowledge and innovation policies'',Science and Public policy 35 (4)( 2008.
reflections from a hydrogen Foresight project, Journal of Cleaner Production 15 (3)( 2007) 259 265.39 K. Cuhls, From forecasting to Foresight processes new participative Foresight activities in Germany, Journal
China's Global Designs! The United states of Asia! Elderly Assumptions! Beauty Medicine and the Worried Well!
Daheim and Uerz 7 at the Second FTA Conference in Seville conference noted the emergence of open foresight as a trend,
In the simplest form, for example the US Critical technologies Program which ran from 1989 to 1998,
. cordis. europa. eu/pub/foresight/docs/brainstorming session1 intrropdf. L. Georghiou, J. Cassingena Harper/Futures 43 (2011) 243 251 245 issue is how actionable such lists are.
For Europe, a wave of foresight activity was associated with the accession of new EU Member States from the so-called‘‘transition economies''.
Havas and Keenan have noted a tendency in such countries for science systems to be disconnected from innovation
the CEE region has probably been focussed the most upon the‘‘critical technologies''style of foresight with prominent examples including successive Russian exercises 21,22
More recent exercises both in the countries already mentioned and also in Romania and Poland have had a more explicit objective to shape the research and innovation system.
For example this was an explicit objective of an EU project which sought to examine the future of‘‘Key Research actors''in the European research area encompassing civil society, researchers, small and medium enterprises, universities, research and technology organisations, multinational enterprises, national and regional governments 23.
(ii) networking for mobilizing the RTD communities in different countries and (iii) priority setting for formulating promising research themes and corresponding resource allocations 35.
J. Cassingena Harper/Futures 43 (2011) 243 251 249 engineering major changes required in EU research and innovation policy in the coming years.
Concepts and Practice, Elgar, Cheltenham, 2007, pp. 170 183.3 R. Mu, Z. Ren, S. Yuan, Y. Quiao, Technology foresight towards 2020 in China:
Concepts and Practice, Elgar, Cheltenham, 2007, pp. 112 130.19 P. Crehan, J. Cassingena Harper, Foresight in smaller countries, in:
Concepts and Practice, Elgar, Cheltenham, 2007, pp. 216 236.20 A. Havas, M. Keenan, Foresight in CEE countries, in:
the case of Russia, in: Bulgarian Integration into European NATO, NATO Security through Science Series:
Human and Societal Dynamics, IOS Press, 2006, pp. 92 109.22 A. Sokolov, Russian Critical technologies 2015, European foresight monitoring Network Brief, 79.
http://www. efmn. eu. 23 M. Akrich, R. Miller, Synthesis Paper The Future of Key Research actors in the European research area, Commission of the European communities, EU 22961 EN
, Calle Vi'ctor Andre's Belaunde, 36,4 C, 28016 Madrid, Spain b European commission Directorate General Joint research Centre (JRC), Programmes and Stakeholders Relations
for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS), Edificio Expo, Calle Inca Garcilaso, 3, E-41092 Seville, Spain d Institute of Policy and Management, Chinese Academy
55 Zhongguancun East Road, Beijing 100190, PR China 1. Introduction In the realm of future-oriented technology analysis (FTA) 1 that encompasses foresight,
totti. konnola@impetusolutions. com (T. Ko nno la), fabiana. scapolo@ec. europa. eu (F. Scapolo), paul. desruelle@ec. europa. eu
and different geographical areas (countries, regions, etc. are engaging in the foresight process. This means that special attention must be paid to the organisation of the process
industry, associations and public organisations of the five Nordic countries. EU: IRRIIS scenario workd 19 Informative Identification of emerging safety and security issues in an EU project to ensure the safety of critical infrastructures.
Consensual A project level consensus on the future developments. Still, different scenarios were considered. Fixed A fixed procedure
and methods selected in the beginning of the project. Autonomous Autonomous scenario work among the stakeholders. The experience of stakeholders‘‘overwrote''the methodological rigidity in some points.
futures challenges, applications and priorities for developing the information society in the EU. Instrumental Outputs contributed to prepare the FP7 (Framework programme) ICT programme.
business actors and researchers from all EU Member States responded to the on-line Delphi study. In addition, more than 600 stakeholders in a various EU Member States were addressed in a series of national seminars.
A number of scenario workshops were held, each involving in average 25 participants. Future Impact of ICTS on Environmental Sustainabilityh 22 Informative Explore how ICTS will influence future environmental sustainability (time horizon:
National Technology foresight in China Informative Understanding future S&t developments and needs. NTFC aims to provide also necessary information for making five-year plan of science & technology development.
Technology foresight towards 2020 in China Informative TF2020 aims to provide necessary information for making long term strategy for science and technology development in China,
Consensual TF2020 has set up 6 pictures of China development in 2020, and identified 734 key technologies in 8 research fields based on the Delphi survey.
by the Nordic council. d The EU Integrated Project IRRIIS Integrated Risk Reduction of Information-based Infrastructure Systems. e Commissioned by the Office of the National science Advisor (ONSA.
In parallel with addressing regulatory aspects, the European union (EU) included in its Fifth Framework programme for Research and Technological development (FP5:
"Today, with the i2010 policy framework, the EU aims to"promote the positive contribution that information
In the Nordic H2 Energy Foresight the major challenge was to create shared understandings on future hydrogen-based energy systems between different stakeholder groups representing five different countries.
National Technology foresight in China and Technology foresight towards 2020 in China as well as National Technology roadmap in Korea were all strongly informative processes that were initiated to capture experts'views on future S&t challenges Hence,
In practice, the technology foresight in Korea and China has borrowed lots of experiences from technology foresight projects in Japan. 3. 3. Priorities foresight (consensual perspectives
since 1970.6 FTA projects in China in broad sense can be traced to‘‘The 12 Years Science Development Planning''made in 1956,
''The FISTERA methodology inspired several national foresight projects, notably in Austria and Hungary. A review of FISTERA by NISTEP underlined the relevance of FISTERA's approach to formulate national science and technology policies also in Japan 24.
and Technology agenda that could be aligned with the US Department of Homeland Security as part of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North america.
The outcomes of consensual and instrumental technology foresight activities in Asian countries such as Japan, Korea and China have played increasingly important role in the policy-making process for science & technology and innovation.
China is planning to make the 12th five years plan for science and technology development by using the knowledge generated from roadmap activity.
The Nordic ICT Foresight was designed to provide a relevant platform to discuss in a structured way the future of ICT in Nordic countries.
hence this would suggest that foresight projects with open-ended diverse visions of the future are not common in these countries.
The 2008 FTA International Seville Conference, 2009, available at: http://forera. jrc. ec. europa. eu/fta 2008/intro. html. 2009-11-10). 2 R. Smits, S. Kuhlmann, The Rise of systemic instruments
in innovation policy, International Journal of Foresight and Innovation policy 1 (1)( 2004) 4 32.3 T. Ko nno la, G. C. Unruh, J. Carrillo-Hermosilla
Current Trends, the State of Play and Perspectives S&t Intelligence for Policy-making processes, Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS), Technical Report EUR-20137-EN, Seville, 2001
http://www. h2foresight. info (2009-11-10). 19 The EU Integrated Project IRRIIS Integrated Risk Reduction of Information-based Infrastructure Systems, available at:
http://fistera. jrc. ec. europa. eu/(2009-11-10). 22 Future impacts of ICTS on Environmental sustainability Project, available at:
http://ipts. jrc. ec. europa. eu/publications/pub. cfm? id=1208 (2009-11-10). 23 R. Compan o',C. Pascu, J.-C. Burgelman, M. Rader, R. Saracco, G. Spinelli
Foresight on Information society Technologies in the European research area (FISTERA) Key Findings, Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS), Technical Report EUR-22319-EN, Seville, 2009, available at:
http://ipts. jrc. ec. europa. eu/publications/pub. cfm? id=1431 (2009-11-10). 24 A. Fujii, Foresight on information society technologies in Europe, in:
http://ipts. jrc. ec. europa. eu/publications/pub. cfm? id=1919 (2009-11-10). 26 L. Georghiou, Third generation foresight:
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