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, 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 is 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 25-29 January 2027 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:

• an UAM-led group on ‘Urban Planning and Sustainability’;
• an UAM-led group on 'Regulation and Technology';
• an ULB-led group on ‘Social Europe’;
• a PLUS-led group on ‘Gender and Equity’;
• a Makerere-led group on 'Migration Policies';
• an UCAD-led group on 'Conflict Management'.

The virtual part will take place between October 5, 2026, and December 18, 2026. 

It will cover the following key topics over the course of six 2h-long sessions:

Session 1 (week of 5 October): "Introduction to Futures Studies: History and key concepts Hybrid class Speakers" - an introductory course exploring the history of foresight. The first hour will focus on the conceptual and epistemological foundations of the field of foresight and its relation to theories of decision and change. 

Session 2 (week of 19 October): "Foresight Methods & Techniques" - the first of two methods-focused courses will explore the strengths and weaknesses of the various techniques associated with strategic foresight. The first hour will describe the key qualitative approaches to foresight, notably 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). The second hour will have a practitioner from the European Commission's Joint Research Center (JRC) detail their vision of Foresight, notably its perceived opportunities and limits in the policymaking process. 

Session 3 (week of 2 November): "Foresight Methods & Data" - the second methods-focused course will cover the type of data associated with foresight, and its specific usages. Data-driven techniques covered by the course include, amongst others: trend analysis examining historical data to identify patterns or trends, quantitative models for scenario planning, and cross-impact analysis assessing the interdependencies between variables and factors. The second hour will involve a guest speaker with practical experience of foresight, notably in relation to the use of survey data in foresight exercises. 

Session 4 (week of 23 November): "Back-casting or which Lessons to drawn both from previous or ongoing Crises" - this course is dived into two parts: on the one hand, an initial hour focused 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 exploring one of the EU’s earliest Foresight exercises - i.e. one in the fields of Health and Safety.

Session 5 (week of 30 November): "Strategic Foresight and European Policymaking" - this session 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 map foresight stakeholders involved in EU policy processes. 

Session 6 (week of 7 December): "Assessing Actual Foresight Exercises"  - this sixth and final online 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. The specific policy topics students will be able to choose from are: ‘Urban Planning and Sustainability’, ‘Social Europe’, Gender and Equity’, ‘Migration Policies', 'Technology and Regulation', and 'Conflict Management'.