Conference on Taming the Wild & Listening to the Weak: Towards a Strategic Issue Management System for Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) The iKnow conference will present the new methods and tools developed by iKnow to support foresight, horizon scanning and forward-looking activities (FLA). The main objective of the conference will be to launch the key recommendations and outcomes coming from the project, with wider applications to the European Research Area and many related futures-oriented activities. The activities and outputs from half-a-dozen workshops, over 60 interviews, large-scale Delphi surveys, systematic horizon scanning of over 1,000 ERA-relevant issues, the Practical Guide on Wild Cards and Weak Signals and the ERA Toolkit, can be found on the... full article

Wild Cards – Preparing for the Unpredictable Karlheinz Steinmüller Z_punkt The Foresight Company, Berlin/Germany   Wild Cards in the Framework of Risk Assessment and Horizon Scanning In recent years, risk assessment and horizon scanning have gained increasing relevance for decision makers. This is not accidental. In a closely connected, utterly complex, globalized world, unpredictable change has become a constant phenomenon. Innovations drive economic development, they create opportunities and risks for economies, societies and the natural environment, and in most cases their impacts are at best uncertain. It may even be argued that all spheres of life are accelerated due to unceasing technological and social innovations. Under these conditions, conventional w... full article

RTC North has launched a suite of training packages to help organisations access the European Union's 50.5bn Euro pot for collaborative research & development. The team at RTC North has so far secured funding to the tune of £110 million for organisations across the North of the UK – money which is helping support over 160 different research projects. RTC North has now developed four key commercial training modules designed to for both novices and experienced research project managers. The programme can be delivered on an individual or group basis at a venue of your choice. The four modules are: ·         FP7 in a Nutshell ·         Advanced Proposal Writing &mid... full article

The aim of the iKnow project is to elucidate and examine events and developments potentially shaping or shaking the future of science, technology and innovation (STI) in the European Research Area (ERA) and the world. In so doing, the project pursues the following objectives: to develop and pilot conceptual and methodological frameworks to identify, classify, cluster and analyse wild cards and weak signals (WI-WE) to assess WI-WE implications for, and expected impact on, key dimensions of the ERA Vision, such as Researchers, Research infrastructures, Research institutions and universities, Knowledge sharing, Joint Programming and International S&T cooperation. iKnow will undertake the following activities: Literature review and desk ... full article

iKNOW aims to advance knowledge and tools related to events and trends potentially shaping – and shaking - the future of science, technology and innovation (STI). The project is funded by the European Commission Directorate  General  for Research, as part of its Blue Sky initiatives,  which are designed  to create more proactive  European research policy that will be capable of anticipating emerging issues, wild cards and weak signals (WI-WE). iKNOW intends  to become a cornerstone for foresight and futures studies in Europe – advancing knowledge, tools and capacities for the analysis and use of WI-WE approaches. To do so, the project has built a consortium of eight partners; six have high-level expertise in foresight, technology... full article