We are the EU Policy Lab
The EU Policy Lab is a space for cross-disciplinary exploration and innovation in policymaking. We apply collaborative, systemic and forward-looking approaches to help bringing the scientific knowledge of the Joint Research Centre into EU policymaking.
We experiment with the new, the unprecedented and the unknown. We seek to augment our understanding of the present, challenge and reinvent the way we think about the future.
The EU Policy Lab is also a mindset and a way of working together that combines stories and data, anticipation and analysis, imagination and action. We bring new practical and radical perspectives to tackle complex problems in a collaborative way. Together, we explore, connect and ideate to create better policies.
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Foresight
Foresight explores long-term futures and creates shared visions for policymaking.
Our lab supports EU policymaking by providing strategic and future-oriented input, developing an anticipatory culture inside the European Commission, continuously experimenting and developing different methods and tools to make foresight practically useful for decision-making processes.
Design for Policy
Design is the creative catalyst of innovation in policymaking.
In our lab we use design to research and gain insight into the problem, to create and test alternative solutions and to collaborate and co-create with policymakers, scientists and stakeholders all along the process.
Behavioural insights
We generate behavioural insights through an empirical approach, gathering contributions from various behavioural sciences.
Our Lab uses behavioural insights to support EU policymaking by identifying behavioural elements in policies and testing behavioural levers to increase policy effectiveness.
Our latest posts
Chasing unpaid taxes weighs on administrations as it is time- and resource-intensive.
- EU Policy Lab tags
- Behavioural insights
- Design for policy
An EU Policy Lab exploration of transformative actions for adaptive water governance
- EU Policy Lab tags
- Design for policy
- Behavioural insights
A new tool for policymakers helps to explore the effects of polycrisis on their policy area
- EU Policy Lab tags
- Foresight
- Design for policy
New year, New Commission – and getting to know foresight
- EU Policy Lab tags
- Foresight
We've just launched the process to design the next EU Strategy on Intergenerational Fairness. Found out more about how we did it.
- EU Policy Lab tags
- Foresight
- Design for policy
- Behavioural insights
Foresight, it seems to be on everyone’s lips these days. But what is it exactly? And more importantly, how can policymakers use it in their daily work? This is why we designed a "menu" to help guide you through the options.
- EU Policy Lab tags
- Foresight