4 Sep 2018In our foresight work, we use megatrends (long-term driving forces that are observable now and will most likely have significant influence on the future) to consider in a structured way all the various changes going on in different areas. Our basis is a set of 14 global megatrends that are relevant for the future of Europe, organized in the Megatrends Hub. It is also a great way of introducing a structured way of thinking about
4 Sep 2018In the first half of this year, we have been working with the Eurostat unit responsible for agriculture and fisheries statistics. They are setting up a system of statistics on agricultural input and output (SAIO), together with Member States' statistical services. Our role was to help develop a format for the discussions of Directors of Agricultural Statistics from across the EU at their annual meeting, so that they would be in a position to give
20 Jul 2018Speculating about the Future of Government 2030+ In the course of the FTA2018 conference, about 25 people gathered to ideate about future forms and processes of decision making. International foresight and design experts met with public servants from the European Commission that are working on public administration innovation. This interesting group was provoked by two future persona stories from the Future of Government 2030+ project that were build up in a series of citizen dialogues
12 Jul 2018The high inflow of refugees and migrants to Europe in 2015 and 2016 put a renewed policy focus on integration, and it also revived the question "integration into what?" considering growing diversity in European societies. What are new developments and emerging issues related to integration and diversity and what will be upcoming challenges in the mid-term future? Representatives from local and regional authorities, civil society, the European Commission and researchers gathered in an expert session
14 Jun 2018Throughout 2017 the EU Policy Lab provided support to the Directorate‑General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT) and Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW) in the analytical work that led to preparing a policy proposal on improving business relationships between online platforms (such as e-commerce or app stores, social media) and those who offer products and services through them (i.e. platforms' business users). As the research and development work
28 May 2018At the WITI kick-off symposium, Eckhard Stoermer hosted a foresight and design thinking workshop on the future of government, to disseminate the dialogue about possible future transformation of the relationship between citizens and government until 2030+. The project Knowledge and Ideas Transfer for Innovation in Public Administration (Wissens- und Ideentransfer für Innovation in der Verwaltung / WITI) held its kick-off symposium on 17th May in Speyer. WITI wants to build a policy lab at the
13 Apr 2018From November 2017 to March 2018 the EU Policy Lab ran a series of highly relevant and timely discussions on the role of government today and in the future from a citizen perspective. Together with partner policy labs and universities in six Member States - Austria, Ireland, Malta, Poland, Spain and Sweden – and through an additional workshop with European civil society organizations and think tanks in Brussels, we were able to launch a dialogue
13 Apr 2018Cork County Council's Service Design team "Service rePublic" led by Julianne Coughlan invited 20 citizens to discuss the future of government, forms of participation and public service delivery on 26th of February, 2018, in the framework of the Future of Government citizen workshop. Participants were citizens active in public participation networks, representatives of citizen organizations, as well as less politically engaged citizens; and they were between 15 and 85 years old! Julianne Coughlan opened the
12 Apr 2018On 12th March 2018, GovLab Austria and the EU Policy Lab discussed possible future relationships between the citizen and the government. This citizen dialogue was set up in the context of the GovLab Austria project "Austria 2035 – the state and I" and the EU Policy Lab project "The future of government 2030+". The participants were a very interesting mix of civil servants from various agencies and different positions, representatives of companies, lectures and IT
12 Apr 2018The eGovLab, University of hosted the workshop as a part of the project “The Future of Government 2030+: A Citizen Centric Perspective on Open Government” at its premises on March 5, 2018. Thirty eight citizens participated in the workshop The scope of the workshop was to inspire participants using design thinking tools and co-creating methodology to understand today's relationships between individuals/citizens and government in the areas of political decision-making processes and public service provision, to