CORDIS re-launches its Science and Technology Foresight service with revamped and new content
Science and technology foresight activities have a new home on CORDIS, the EU's official information service on research, technological development and innovation. The web service has been revamped jointly by CORDIS, and the Foresight unit of the European Commission's Directorate General for Research. Foresight aims at identifying possible futures, imagining desirable futures, and defining strategies based on these scenarios. The aim is to feed results into public decision-making, such as which research priorities deserve public funding, but they also help participants themselves to develop or adjust their strategy. The CORDIS Foresight service gives an overview of EU supported activities in this area, with a new section, 'what foresight can do for you', acting as introduction. Other sections retained from the previous version of the service include: Cooperation in Europe, Research in Foresight, European Actors (national and European level), Future Visions, Tools, Publications, News and Events. New sections on the Foresight Knowledge Sharing Platform and 'The Future of EU Foresight' refer to recent and ongoing initiatives aimed at improving the implementation of EU-supported Foresight activities. The section on 'Regional Foresight' gives an overview of the many foresight activities aimed at supporting regional policies, including conferences on 'Building the Future on Knowledge' and 'Europe's Regions Shaping the Future', information on the expert group Blueprints for Foresight in the Regions, as well as Country Guides of Regional Foresight. A section on 'Foresighting the New Technology Wave' gives details of the activities of a conference and expert group on converging technologies. Similarly, the 2005 expert group and September conference on Key Technologies for Europe are covered in detail. The expert group's final report attempts to look beyond FP7 and the Lisbon Agenda to make recommendations for the future research priorities of the European Union. The report was debated at a conference held on 19 and 20 September 2005 and details of this, along with the individual experts' reports on each technological sector are now available on the service. The CORDIS Foresight service also includes the usual sections on highlights and contacts.