Strategic Foresight and Future Studies emerge as a critical capability in this area because today's world faces an unprecedented polycrisis, a convergence of interlinked global challenges. Climate change, geopolitical shifts, economic volatility, technological disruption, and societal transformations are no longer isolated events but interconnected forces that amplify and exacerbate one another. 

This complex and dynamic landscape demands a new generation of researchers, public officials, and managers equipped with the tools to anticipate and address the multifaceted manifestations of the polycrisis at various levels and across different countries. This Blended Intensive Programme (BIP), developed under the CIVIS Alliance, seeks to cultivate these essential skills in graduate students, enabling them to become effective agents of change in the face of the polycrisis. 

'Visions of the future' are part of any political debate or project (White, 2024). As such, both polities and politics are shaped by their understanding of their future(s). However, contemporary policymaking has seen an uptick in future debates and forecasting efforts (Andersson, 2012 & 2018). While specific policy forecasts generally fail to materialize, this, perhaps counterintuitively, does not diminish their importance as their raison d’être is the coordination of present action via the ‘fictional expectations’ they create (Esposito & Becker, 2023).

In response to contemporary polycrisis, characterised as a complex system of interconnected crises that transcend specific domains and influence each other (Duit & Galaz, 2008; Orsini et al., 2020; Berten & Kranke, 2024), policymakers have sought to harness the coordinative value of forecasting exercises (Berten & Kranke, 2024), notably within a uniquely complex polity as the European Union. (e.g. Brack & Gürkan 2020; Bressanelli & Natali, 2023; Smeets & Beach, 2023; Hoeffler, Hofmann, & Mérand 2024). As a result, it has become essential to understand how political institutions, the variety of actors involved, and scientific models forge what we conceive of, or not, as potential futures.

Increasingly the necessary skill set aimed at navigating policymaking in the European Union in general, and in response to polycrisis in particular.

The (English-spoken) in-person workshop will take place between 26-30 January 2026 at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium) and will focus on applying the knowledge gained during the online seminar. The workshop will culminate in a presentation session where students will showcase their policy briefs and receive feedback from peers and experts. During the week, students will: 

• enhance and present their real-world scenarios developed during the semester;
• participate in hands-on activities and collaborative projects with experts;
• develop one policy brief per small group, based on their scenarios, providing actionable recommendations for managing complex risks. 

The workshop will also take full advantage of its location in Brussels to interface with the European institutions. EU practitioners will be included as contributors to the workshop’s different sessions, and time will be set aside for visits to the EU institutions, notably targeting their forecasting units.

Concretely, students will be divided into 3-to-4 groups reflecting the topics presented at the last course of the hybrid training sessions. Participants will focus their efforts on working as a group to produce a foresight report in response to a specific policy challenge of their choice.

Challenges to be broach by the different simulation groups in January 2026 will include:

• the UAM led Group on ‘Urban Planing and Sustainability Policies’
• the ULB led Group on ‘Social Policies’
• the PLUS led Group on ‘Gender and Equity Policies’
• the PolyCIVIS led Group on ‘Euro-African Policies’ CIVIS

The virtual part will take pace between 15 September - 16 December 2025. It will cover the following key topics over the course of 6 sessions:

Session 1: "Introduction to Futures Studies: History and key concepts Hybrid class Speakers" - an introductory course exploring the different approaches to  foresight. The first hour of the course will focus on the conceptual and epistemological foundations of the foresight approach, particularly in relation to theories of decision and change. The second hour of the course will involve a guest speaker with practical experience of foresight exercises invited to share their insights 

Session 2: "Foresight Methods & Techniques" with the first hour focussing on Qualitative Approaches; while the second hour will  introduce participants the Quantitative Approaches (Part 1).  A non-exhaustive list of techniques touched upon includes: horizon scanning (as a fundamental technique for the systematic exploration and analysis of emerging trends, potential disruptions and signals of change), futures wheels (for the analysis of causal chains) and risk worlds (providing a solid basis for the analysis of risk scenarios). 

Session 3: "Quantitative Approaches (Part 2)" will cover three complementary techniques: trend analysis (examining historical data to identify patterns or trends that can inform our understanding of future developments), quantitative models for scenario planning, and cross-impact analysis (assessing the interdependencies between variables and factors).

Session 4: "Back-casting or which Lessons to drawn both from previous or ongoing Crises" is dived into two parts: on the one hand, an hour focussed on lessons one can draw from the experience of past crises and the role foresight played in the subsequent policy-responses; and on the other, a second hour offering a detailed analyses of actual foresight exercise that has been carried out at the EU-level or beyond. 

Session 5: "Strategic Foresight and European Policymaking" will cover how foresight informs European decision-making. It will do this by unpacking the centres of expertise involved in strategic foresight within European policy-making processes offering participants the chance to work on mapping of foresight stakeholders involved in EU policy processes. 

Session 6: "Assessing Actual Foresight Exercises" will be divided into 4 topical sections reflecting the police-fields students can choose from to work on during the in-person workshop: ‘Urban Planing and Sustainbility Policies’, ‘Social Policies’, Gender and Equity Policies’, ‘Euro-African Policies’. The sixth and final session will see the CIVIS academics set to lead the in-person foresight exercises present the specific policy challenge they will invite the students to work on during the in-person workshop.

Overall calendar of the virtual component:

• Session 1 - Week of October 6
• Session 2 - Week of October 20
• Session 3 - Week of November 3 
• Session 4 - Week of November 24
• Session 5 - Week of December 1
• Session 6 - Week of December 8