That is why we blend foresight, behavioural insights and design to help EU policymakers navigate uncertainty, gather evidence and rigorously test options across policy areas.
Policy labs: how we work on complex challenges
A 'policy lab' is a focused, cross‑cutting process where policymakers, experts and citizens work together to tackle a complex challenge using a tailored mix of our methods. It goes beyond a single workshop or study: each lab is a journey that explores futures, understands real‑world behaviours and prototypes and tests solutions.
For us, ‘policy labs’ are projects that cut across themes such as technology, risks and preparedness, sustainability transitions, democracy or migration. They bring different services and disciplines around the same table to co‑create more robust, evidence‑based, inclusive and future‑ready policies.
When a policy lab approach helps
A policy lab approach is particularly useful when:
- The issue is highly complex or cuts across multiple Directorates General or levels of governance
- There are different visions of what success looks like
- Policy priorities compete or existing policies have contradictory effects
Typical questions we work with include: understanding human behaviour related to policy problems, identifying the long‑term and full range of impacts of a policy, uncovering barriers and levers for policy success, bringing together all relevant competences, involving stakeholders in critical decisions, and ensuring policies reflect on‑the‑ground realities.
Our process
The outcome depends on the starting point: it can be a clearer picture of how a system works, a roadmap for next steps, a solid set of guiding questions, an exploration of behavioural drivers of decisions, or a shared understanding of actors and interactions.
While each lab is tailor‑made, our typical steps are:
- Scoping
A session with key project leaders to understand the issue, context and questions.
- Designing a bespoke approach
Co‑creating a process that draws on the team's different profiles and methods – foresight, behavioural insights and design.
- Embedding in planning
Aligning the lab with the Directorate‑General's work plan and decision moments.
- Execution
Using selected tools (for example interviews, surveys, workshops, visual mappings, scenarios) and following the process through to its conclusion.
Policy labs in action
Recent examples include helping European Commission Directors-General define priorities ahead of the new 2025-2029 Commission, exploring the future of the New European Bauhaus, and supporting the Directorate-General for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR)’s Roma integration policy!
Below you can find a selection of some of our cross-cutting projects.
Intergenerational FairnessA co‑created preparatory process to support the design of the first EU Strategy on Intergenerational Fairness
Futures GardenA participatory foresight initiative using speculative design to turn future visions into policy experiments
EU Waste Sorting LabelsDesigning and testing a harmonised labelling system as part of the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation