Recently, the Joint Research Center (JRC) of the EU Commission invited our Professor of Futures Studies, Heiko von der Gracht, in his role as co-editor of the leading scientific journal “Technological Forecasting & Social Change” (TFSC) to an expert exchange. The JRC is nothing less than “the commissions science and knowledge service”. It exists solely to provide the EU Commission with neutral and independent scientific data and facts. To this end, it regularly exchanges ideas with the most renowned experts in their respective fields, with a particular focus on innovation and foresight.
The keyword “foresight” immediately brings to mind our own expert, who spent 60 minutes discussing the central question with around 30 interested JRC experts: What are the most exciting, burning and pressing issues in professional foresight today and, above all, in the future? As co-editor and head of the TFSC’s Foresight Bureau, von der Gracht has his finger on the pulse of futurology and is familiar with developments in the international research community.
As the JRC provides the EU Vice-President responsible for foresight in Ursula von der Leyen’s cabinet with all the necessary information, we were able, in all modesty, to provide some impetus and suggestions for European policy.
During the exchange, the JRC was particularly interested in the increasing professionalization of foresight at European level and the assessment of our futurologist that looking into the future is already subject to ever higher and better quality standards. Quality is the decisive factor, especially when it comes to the future. The second major point of interest, for which von der Gracht was a firm advocate, was and is greater transparency in the Commission’s futurology itself. Anyone who has as much expertise as the JRC on the subject of the future should also allow European citizens and researchers to participate in it in terms of publishing.