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Backcasting workshop for the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda
4th February 2026 — A new partnership is to be established as part of the European Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, 'Horizon Europe': the 'European Partnership on Social Transformations and Resilience' (STR). To define this partnership's specific research and innovation priorities, DLR Projektträger convened around 40 European experts for a strategic foresight workshop in Bonn on 28 and 29 January 2026. This two-day event, held under the title of "Towards a Strategic Research & Innovation Agenda for the STR Partnership", aimed to translate four best-case scenarios from previous foresight cycles into concrete research and innovation priorities for the future STR partnership's Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA).
The focus was on four impact areas:
- Supporting the modernisation of social protection systems
- Shaping the future of work
- Fostering education and skills development
- Contributing to a fair transition towards climate neutrality
The topics considered in the workshop were deliberately chosen to be mutually influential. Progress in one field can enable and accelerate developments in other areas.
Backcasting turns visions of the future into actionable plans. By agreeing on what a desirable Europe would look like in 2040, we can deduce the milestones that need to be achieved by 2033 and 2037 in terms of the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda.
Backcasting makes visions of the future actionable.
In the workshop, DLR Projektträger's strategic foresight team worked with the Humanities and Cultural Heritage Unit to use the backcasting method. Starting from a desirable target vision for 2040, participants identified key milestones (including those for 2033 and 2037), as well as necessary framework conditions, potential obstacles, and action steps, thinking backwards from the future to the present. Specifically, the participants first developed priority measures and then used these to define research and innovation priorities for the strategy. By the end of the workshop, the experts had developed up to six thematic priorities for each of the impact areas in the future Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda.
A method of strategic foresight, backcasting begins by developing a desirable vision of the future. It then works backwards from there to the present, asking: what milestones must be achieved to make this goal a reality? These considerations are used to derive concrete steps, prerequisites, and options for action that should be initiated today.
Contribution to the European Partnership from 2027
The European Partnership on Social Transformations and Resilience is currently being prepared and is expected to start in 2027. The Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda, with its implementation-oriented research priorities, will serve members of the partnership as a basis for future calls for proposals.
