The Competence Centre on Foresight supports EU policymaking by providing strategic and future-oriented input, developing an anticipatory culture inside the European Commission, continuously experimenting and developing different methods and tools to make foresight practically useful for decision-making processes.
Foresight tools
Foresight tools help make sense of signals of change, explore alternative futures and connect them to today’s policy decisions. They can be used in short workshops or multi‑stage processes and adapted to different policy areas.
- Horizon scanning and signals mapping: Systematically identify weak signals, trends and disruptions across domains, then cluster them into key issues that may affect your policy area in the medium to long term.
- Exploratory scenarios: Develop a small set of contrasting future worlds to explore how different combinations of drivers could reshape Europe and its policy priorities.
- Policy stress-testing with scenarios: Test existing or proposed policies against each scenario: where do they still work, where do they break, and what would need to change to stay effective across different futures?
- Backcasting from preferred futures: Start from an ambitious 2040–2050 vision (e.g. climate resilience, social cohesion, democratic robustness) and work backwards to identify milestones, enabling conditions and early actions from today onwards.
- Drivers–enablers–barriers analysis: Use the “futures triangle” and similar tools to distinguish pull drivers (visions and expectations), push enablers (technologies, capabilities) and weight barriers (institutional or societal obstacles), clarifying where policy can unlock change.
To better understand what you need to solve your policy problem, take a look at the Foresight Menu. The new, extended version of the Menu also includes case examples on different foresight project.
You can mix and match these tools in tailored processes, from half‑day 'policy labs' to multi‑session journeys accompanying the policy cycle.
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The future of ocean observation will not be driven by a single solution, but by convergence - technological and human. It will rely on integrating diverse sensors, autonomous platforms, and AI-enabled analytics.
- EU Policy Lab tags
- Foresight
As the EU moves forward on its pledge to put Intergenerational Fairness (IGF) at the heart of its policymaking, the visioning phase has become an inspiring journey, filled with creative aspiration, honest dialogue and the practical tools we’ll need to build a Europe where every generation thrives.
- EU Policy Lab tags
- Foresight
- Design for policy
- Behavioural insights
Find out more about the foresight methods informing this year's Strategic Foresight Report!
- EU Policy Lab tags
- Foresight
How do we better protect the natural world when biodiversity is under unprecedented threat? If we want to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, we need to address the behaviours that drive it and how we design policies. To do this, all actors in society are key.
- EU Policy Lab tags
- Behavioural insights
- Design for policy
- Foresight
Why you should be thinking about using games in policymaking environments .
- EU Policy Lab tags
- Foresight
- Design for policy
What do ants and EU trainees have in common and what transforms a scattered multitude into a purposeful network?
- EU Policy Lab tags
- Foresight
- Design for policy
How will today’s democratic shifts shape the Europe of tomorrow? What new paths might develop in the EU's democratic landscape and how can these imagined futures equip policymakers to act more decisively today?
- EU Policy Lab tags
- Foresight
The Polycrisis Exploration Workshop Tool transforms foresight from an abstract exercise into an actionable, collective process.
- EU Policy Lab tags
- Foresight
How can the EU stay competitive, while also safeguarding strategic autonomy?
- EU Policy Lab tags
- Foresight
Imagine a Europe where the voices of the young, the old, those yet to be born, and even the living world (animals, plants and ecosystems) are all heard and valued equally around the same table.
- EU Policy Lab tags
- Foresight
- Design for policy
- Behavioural insights