“Forward looking”, “grand societal challenges”, “foresight and scenarios approaches”, “evidence-based policy”, “multidisciplinary governance”. These are the key issues of a recently commenced research project, supported by the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Commission. A consortium consisting of research centres, think tanks, public policy institutes, universities and policy consulting companies, announces the launch of the Forward Looking Analysis of Grand Societal Challenges and Innovative Policies (FLAGSHIP) project.

The FLAGSHIP project aims at driving change, supporting the policy shift from adapting to changes through short-term policy responses, towards anticipating, welcoming and managing changes properly. The FLAGSHIP project will apply forward looking analyses to the formulation of policies that effectively address main challenges faced by the EU, and the world as a whole. FLAGSHIP will analyse reference and alternative scenarios of long‐term demographic, legal, economic, social and political evolutions in Europe, without disregarding the global geopolitical context. FLAGSHIP research activities aim to strike a good balance between the enhancement of methodological approaches and the development of policy applications to address long-term scenarios of grand societal challenges.

The FLAGSHIP project brings together a multidisciplinary team with recognised records of excellence in qualitative, as well as in quantitative forward-looking analysis. The Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD) is part of this ambitious research effort, contributing with its track record and expertise in both methodologically sound research and policy development. Founded in late 1989, CSD is an interdisciplinary public policy institute, combining research excellence with policy advocacy for piloting social innovation and institutional reforms in Bulgaria and in Europe in a number of areas, most notably economic and legal transition, good governance, anti-corruption and security, forensics and criminology, energy governance and energy security.

The FLAGSHIP project started in January 2013 and will last for a period of three years.

For further information please contact the Economic Program of the Center for the Study of Democracy.