Monitoring foresight activities in Europe and the rest of the world : final report

The report 'Monitoring foresight activities in Europe and the rest of the world' is part of a series of publications produced by the European Foresight Monitoring Network (EFMN project, 2004-2008). EFMN is a Europe-wide network inspired and financed by the European Commission within the framework of the Foresight Knowledge Sharing Platform implemented under the Research Framework Programme (FP7). This report is the concluding report of the European Foresight Monitoring Network. After 4 years of activity, the report provides you with a concise overview of the backgrounds and organization of the EFMN. It gives you a more detailed insight in how the organization of work and network development evolved. It shows the results of the Mapping, Issue analysis, Briefs production and Dissemination, being the main activities of the network. 2 000 Foresight initiatives were identified. Annual overviews of foresight activities were produced at country level as well as an analysis of all the collected foresight initiatives. Four annual issue analysis workshops have been conducted, focusing on crucial societal topics. They were all the result of a systematic analysis of the emerging issues. The aim of the report is to provide the academic reader, as well as the policymaker and the otherwise interested an overview of some of the most inspiring results, as well as show them some insights in the lessons learned. By identifying the big scientific, technological and social challenges of tomorrow and bringing relevant information on crucial societal topics to the attention of the foresight community and policy-makers, EFMN was considered as being one of the most valuable current foresight initiatives.