Project description
A knowledge solution using speculative fiction for innovations
Speculative fiction (SF), also known as future fiction, encompasses various ideas about the future on a global scale. These narratives explore concepts related to societal transformation, technological progress, and the consequences of climate change. To leverage these visions for inspiration in fostering innovations, the ERC-funded COFUTURESLITERACY project will organise the methods employed by professionals worldwide in envisioning future possibilities. It will systematise these methods and integrate them with scenario and policy work to develop a knowledge solution known as CoFutures Literacy. The proof of concept (PoC) will extract key ideas from diverse SF research and incorporate them into existing models, resulting in a methodological toolkit, a research and design handbook, and an open media and lecture library.
Objective
People around the world imagine futures differently. These imaginations of the future are most clearly found in the fictions they produce (Future Fictions or Speculative Fiction; SF). SF acts as a repository of ideas related to societal change, technological change, climate change, and other kinds of change. How do we take these different imaginations, and use them to drive societal innovations? How do we work with the complexity of visions around the world, not merely in its richer parts but in its poorer, or developing parts, to think new kinds of futures: economic, cultural, political? And how do we scale and translate these visions for use in policy and policy-adjacent contexts, how can they inspire new social and technological developments? While the need for these fictions to drive innovation is by now well-known at research and policy level, the core problem is that there have been no methodologies, no tools, and no frameworks that acknowledge the deep complexity of global, creative imaginaries of the future and feed them directly into new ways of thinking about societal challenges.
In the PoC-CoFutures Literacy, we will take people’s imaginations of the future, especially as found in SF, and systematize the methods used by creative professionals globally to imagine futures. These creative methods will be combined with methods used in innovations, scenario and policy work to understand, anticipate and generate futures. Together, this will form the knowledge solution we term CoFutures Literacy. The PoC will develop this knowledge solution by taking some of the central ideas from diverse imaginations of the future worldwide from SF research done by the ERC-STG CoFUTURES (2020-2024), combine these with existing models of futures and innovation research, and crystallize these functions into three modules of the knowledge solution: a) a comparative methodological toolkit, b) a research and design handbook, and, c) an open media and lecture library.
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC-POC - HORIZON ERC Proof of Concept Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2022-POC2
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0313 Oslo
Norway
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