The first decade of the second millennium has emphatically shown that we need to prepare for the non-preparable, and we need to foresee the unforeseen. The world is changing rapidly and in greater levels of complexity, thus quick reaction and resilient strategies are a necessity for businesses and policymakers. Innovation agencies, as well as companies and policymakers, need to anticipate future developments in order to be prepared for them and be able to adapt and address the changing needs of their clients. While it is relatively easy to prepare for short-term linear development, longer-term shifts in the socio-technical system and the impacts of the exponential technological disruptions are harder to cope with. In this context foresight is an approach to support the longer-term anticipation of alternative futures and for triggering responses (adaptation) to them.
In order for innovation agencies to be able to respond to the complex nature of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, a different type of governance is needed including a redesign of policy processes and services that will promote sustainability, resilience, social inclusion and societal well-being. In Europe, we can find many new approaches of policy-making based on agile governance tools. From policy labs elaborating new policy techniques and focusing on end-users, to regulatory sandboxes where companies can experiment and test innovative business models, products, and services, there are increasingly improved tools, measures and processes for more dynamic and more agile governance. They can broadly be differentiated in being developed around existing governance structures or changing the existing policy-making system . Nevertheless, innovation agencies lack behind, as policy continuity is more likely than policy change. It is difficult to change a certain policy path because actors and policies have become institutionalized which would require a great deal of effort and cost by the actors who seek change. Consequently, the exchange of new experiences among stakeholders and peer learning among policy actors is a crucial next step.
Future Proof has addressed the complexity and rapid transformations that bring enormous change to the innovation environment. Online business, cloud technology and marketing via social media, just to mention a few of the new trends affecting SMEs and their productivity and competitiveness, need new approaches and trigger new needs. Policymakers and innovation actors in Europe need to act fast and develop new, hands-on services and support-schemes in order to make SMEs fit and resilient. Future Proof has enabled to look into the future requirements of SMEs as well as possible solutions on how to meet those requirements by exchanging best practices and sharing new efficient support services.
Taking into account the above, the overall objectives of the Future-Proof project had been threefold:
- To utilize strategic foresight methodologies for designing new services and/or programs that will respond to the future needs of our SME clients.
- To exchange best practices in designing and implementing foresight-related services to SMEs that will create high-performance, resilient, future-proof SMEs.
- To broadly communicate the project outputs to the European innovation ecosystem.
