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Policy design, impact assessment and evaluation
Strategic Foresight in Policy-Making: From Anticipating Surprise to Robust Strategy
This course equips you with the relevant knowledge about the most essential foresight tools, how these tools can be combined and what it takes to implement them. You will learn about explorative scenarios, horizon scanning, megatrends, Delphi analysis, and wild cards. More importantly, you will learn how to make foresight products useful for policy planning, by transforming foresights into strategic foresight.
This course equips participants with the relevant knowledge about the most essential foresight tools, how these tools can be combined and what it takes to implement them.
Participants learn about explorative scenarios, horizon scanning, megatrends, Delphi analysis, and wild cards. More importantly, participants learn how to make foresight products useful for policy planning, by transforming foresights into strategic foresight.
The course introduces many different foresight tools along the foresight process in the policy cycle and allows participants to easily identify and discuss opportunities for practical application.
What you will learn in this course:
- the nature, benefits, and limitations of strategic foresight
- the entire foresight toolbox
- the scenario methodology
- how to use strategic foresight in policy planning and decision making
Course methodology/highlights
The two half-day course is led by an expert who has decades of practical experience in Strategic Foresight.
The course combines interactive presentations, practical examples and quick polls and group exercises to consolidate the concepts.
Read our recent blog on Campaigns and Consultations: Campaigns in the European Commission’s public consultation written by our experts Nikolaos Sarris and Miranda Lovell-Prescod.
By the end of the course, you will:
- Know the basic concepts of strategic foresight.
- Have gained an overview of common methods and their interrelationships.
- Be able to better assess the quality of foresight products.
- Have an idea of what success factors are for project implementation in the field of foresight
After-course support
You will be given the slides, as well as additional learning material and online resources, to help you apply your new knowledge and skills to your work.
This course on Introduction to Strategic Foresight is one of 5 courses we are currently offering in the context of the Better Regulation agenda.
Are you interested in taking a different course please click below:
Introduction to the Better Regulation Agenda | Regulatory ex post Evaluations | Regulatory Impact Assessments | Stakeholder Consultation in the Context of Better Regulation
Target group
Public officials, civil servants and policy analysts who work in government or parliamentary institutions, in EU Member States or candidate countries, similar to the following:
- ‘Better Regulation’ committees / programmes
- centres for research and analysis
- bureaucracy reduction agencies
- budget offices
- councils for regulatory impact assessments
Online Course
For this online course we make use of Zoom
Programme Organiser
Ms Eveline Hermens
Tel: +31 43 3296259
e.hermens@eipa.eu
Discounts
EIPA member fee
EIPA offers a discount to all civil servants working for one of EIPA’s supporting countries, and civil servants working for an EU institution, body or agency
Who are the supporting countries?
Civil servants coming from the following EIPA supporting countries are entitled to get the reduced fee: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden.
For all other participants, the regular fee applies
Early bird discount
The early bird discount is not cumulative with other discounts or promo codes, except for the EIPA member fee.
Who are the supporting countries?
Civil servants coming from the following EIPA supporting countries are entitled to get the reduced fee: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden.
For all other participants, the regular fee applies.
Confirmation
Confirmation of registration will be forwarded to participants on receipt of the completed online registration form.
Payment
Prior payment is a condition for participation.
Cancellation policy
For administrative reasons you will be charged € 50 for cancellations received within 7 days before the activity begins. There is no charge for qualified substitute participants.
EIPA reserves the right to cancel the activity up to 1 week before the starting date. In that case, registration fees received will be fully reimbursed.
A few days before the start of the course you will receive the log-in details for accessing the course materials. You can log in here.
Download the brochure
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Our experts
Programme
| 08.45 | Registration of participants |
| 09.00 | Welcome and introduction to the course Dr. Johannes Gabriel, Managing Director of Foresight Intelligence, Adjunct Professor at Johns Hopkins University’s SAIS in Bologna. |
| 09.15 | Introduction to Foresight & Strategic Foresight In this session, we provide an introduction to foresight and strategic foresight. We explain the origins, uses, and limitations of foresights, as well as highlight the difference between foresight and strategic foresight. |
| 10.00 | Horizon Scanning & Megatrends During this session, we present the key concepts and principles of Regulatory Impact Assessments and Regulatory Evaluations. We also introduce the principles of stakeholder consultation, discussing relevant consultation methodologies and tools aligned with current practices in the European Commission. |
| 10:30 | Coffee break |
| 10:45 | Horizon Scanning & Megatrends (Continued) |
| 11:30 | Explorative Scenarios Scenarios are incredibly useful and versatile strategic foresight tools. In this session, we provide an introduction to their uses and limitations, along with an overview of the methodology guiding the scenario process. We present the scenario cross, cross-impact analysis, sensitivity analysis, and scenario writing. Towards the end of this session, you will have the opportunity to critically review a case study in breakout groups and discuss practical applications of the scenario approach. |
| 13.00 | End of the day |
| 08.45 | Opening of online platform |
| 09.00 | Explorative Scenarios (Continued) |
| 09.30 | Wild cards and Delphi Surveys In this session we explain what a wild card is and how it can be used in a scenario analysis. We explore the difference between horizon scanning and a Delphi analysis and discuss why expert Delphi surveys are not an adequate replacement for explorative scenarios. The session concludes with an open discussion about the implementation of these foresight tools in practice, including their advantages and disadvantages. |
| 10:30 | Coffee break |
| 10:45 | Strategy Work This session bridges horizon scanning, explorative scenarios, and other tools such as Delphi surveys or wild cards to strategy work. We present how can foresight products inform strategic policy planning, how to deal with probability, how to systematically define opportunities and threats and how to create strategic options After a short introduction, you will work in breakout groups and create strategic options based on a case study. The session concludes with a plenary exercise that teaches you how to create no-regret options and how to design robust strategy |
| 12:30 | Wrap up and evaluation We invite participants to ask questions, not only regarding methodology, but also concerning their own foresight challenges. |
| 13.00 | End of the course |