Final Report Summary - IFA (International Foresight Academy)
The International Foresight Academy (IFA) was the first initiative worldwide to bring together foresight activities around the globe in order to expand horizons and offer new networking opportunities. This EU project, coordinated by the Austrian Institute of Technology, did not only use international exchange programmes and seminars to broaden perspectives of the participants and a larger audience, but it also examined how foresight can be used to organize participative process in modern democracies and how to use the “discipline of anticipation” in our daily strategic planning. Partners from a wide range of European (Austria, Finland, Romania, Switzerland) and non-European countries (Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Russia, South Korea) took part in this exchange scheme.
The project focused on examining the extent to which foresight and anticipation could serve as an instrument to promote participative processes in different democracies. IFA also offered an exchange programme for scientist, two summer schools (near Vienna, Austria and in Brasília, Brazil) and two academic seminars (near Zürich, Switzerland and in Buenos Aires, Argentina). During the course of the project a range of secondments were realized, increasing the mutual understanding of Foresight in each of the participating countries.
As action research, IFA explored and compared if and how foresight and anticipation comprise the potential to function as means in supporting to better face and influence politics, especially with regard to the Grand Challenges. IFA helpe dto strengthen and expand the Foresight world wide and stablished new productive relations between researchers, policy makers and "foresighters".
For more information on IFA and the activities see also http://ifa.cgee.org.br/ .
The project focused on examining the extent to which foresight and anticipation could serve as an instrument to promote participative processes in different democracies. IFA also offered an exchange programme for scientist, two summer schools (near Vienna, Austria and in Brasília, Brazil) and two academic seminars (near Zürich, Switzerland and in Buenos Aires, Argentina). During the course of the project a range of secondments were realized, increasing the mutual understanding of Foresight in each of the participating countries.
As action research, IFA explored and compared if and how foresight and anticipation comprise the potential to function as means in supporting to better face and influence politics, especially with regard to the Grand Challenges. IFA helpe dto strengthen and expand the Foresight world wide and stablished new productive relations between researchers, policy makers and "foresighters".
For more information on IFA and the activities see also http://ifa.cgee.org.br/ .