Foresight

Foresight is recognized as a viable policy tool characterized by systematic, participatory, future-intelligence-gathering and medium-to-long-term vision-building processes with the aim to informing present-day decisions and mobilize joint actions. It is widely used in policy-making throughout Europe, the US and Japan.

Through a series of initiatives ARC Fund actively promotes the concept and practice of Technology and Innovation Foresight as a valuable instrument in designing science, technology and innovation policies in Bulgaria aiming to provide an optimum match between the national R&D potential and the existing economic opportunities by bringing together key agents of change and various sources of knowledge.

ARC Fund was the first organization to introduce Foresight in Bulgaria and contribute to building a national capacity for applying foresight in order to develop strategic visions and anticipatory intelligence thus ensuring sustainable policy-making by governments and regional organizations. In the period October 2002 - July 2004 ARC Fund coordinated the implementation of a pilot foresight initiative - the ForeTech Project, which helped create a community of foresight practitioners in Bulgaria and Romania, and provided a bridge to the existing foresight expertise, knowledge and best practice accumulated in the EU member states and the New Member States. The outcomes of this project were also used to inform the European R&D policies for measures to be taken to enhance research and technology development in the two candidate countries.

An important initiative stemming from the ForeTech project is the Foresight Bridge which is aimed at networking the new EU member states and candidate countries, ensuring long-term sustainability of foresight initiatives, and developing a critical mass of foresight expertise. Over the years, ARC Fund has contributed to more than a dozen projects at EU level, applying foresight methods in fields like research infrastructure (RIFI, ForeIntegra), biotechnology, agriculture, food quality and safety (FutureFood6, ForeTech), participation of citizens in identifying future research priorities (CIVISTY), environment and new energy sources (SPRING).