News about the Uk Foresight Programme
Issue 12 - April 2006
Infectious Diseases Futures launched 26 April
Detection and Identification of Infectious Diseases
The findings of the seventh Foresight project - Detection and Identification of Infectious Diseases (DIID) - were launched byDefra Minister Lord Bach on 26 April. We have presented a number of themes, highlighting key opportunities and challenges for the 21st century, which may have wide reaching implications for the international community. The launch is followed by a technical conference at the Royal Society on 3 May, where the key findings of the project will be presented and the implications for the development of policies for managing diseases discussed.
All reports and reviews from the project are now available from the Foresight website
An innovation with this launch is a CD containing interviews with key participants in the project - information on this is available here.
Project News
Obesity Scope for Confusion?
Our newest project on obesity is now well under way. In scoping the project, we haveseen that obesity is often represented as a well understood condition, at the heart of which is a simple equation; too much in, not enough out. However, we have already established that the causes of obesity are neither simple nor well understood. It was significant that every discipline consulted suggested a different driver to be of primary importance. For more information on the scoping of the project, a literature review of the trends and drivers of obesity, and a summary of the project process see the Obesity project pages.
Intelligent Infrastructure Systems: Launch creates waves
Intelligent Infrastructure Systems
In the last edition of e-sight, we highlighted the launch of the findings ofour project on Intelligent Infrastructure Systems. This received excellent publicity at home and abroad, and following on from the main documentation, we have recently published a report on the scenarios that were developed during the project.Thisincludesa series of personal reflections by leading academic experts on how environment, society, crime and economics may develop in the alternative futures. These thoughts may help you to consider the implications of the scenarios for you and your organisation. To access this report, see here. (PDF)
Update on potential new projects
In March this year, the Government's Chief Scientific Adviser, and Head of the Government Office for Science, Sir David King, hosted a brainstorming event to kick start the process of developing and selecting future projects, a report on the outcome of this event, and the emerging themes is available here.
Horizon Scanning
The Futures Analysts Network (FAN Club) met on 20 February to look at the emerging results from the Horizon Scanning Centre (HSC) "Sigma" horizon scanning process; the work of the Foresight Intelligent Infrastructure Systems project; and the use of futures thinking to aid policy making in the public sector. Details will be reported in the latest newsletter which will be available shortly on the HSC website. The next meeting of the Club on 9 May will be considering the role of corporate memory in forward strategy development - " Lessons from the Past - Learning for the Future". Meetings are open to all those in public, private and third sector organisations with an interest in the future for further information, see here.
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