Strategic Foresight Workshop Explores Future Trends in the Western Balkans
10th October 2024 — At the end of September 2024, DLR Projektträger (DLR-PT) organised the Strategic Foresight workshop “Beyond the Horizon: A Joint Foresight Exercise” back-to-back with the ministerial meeting of the “Western Balkans Steering Platform on Education & Training, Research & Innovation, and Culture” in Skopje, North Macedonia. Organized within the “Policy Answers” project, the session gave EU and regional policymakers, researchers, and experts the opportunity to engage in a joint Foresight exercise, exploring the future of R&I in the Western Balkans.
Strategic Foresight is not about predicting one specific future – because, as we all know, that’s impossible. It is rather about overcoming our biases and looking at different ways the future might unfold – so that we are ready when it comes.
The session, moderated by Dr. Julia Schmälter, senior researcher at DLR Projektträger, featured opening remarks by Signe Ratso, Deputy Director of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, and Sinisa Marcic, senior expert on Competitiveness at the Regional Cooperation Council. The workshop aimed to familiarise participants with the concept of Strategic Foresight, to challenge existing assumptions about the future and to adopt a future-oriented mindset.
Trend cards are a methodological tool used in Strategic Foresight. They summarize key trends and developments in specific areas that are expected to have long-term impacts. Each card presents a trend supported by data, analysis, and examples. In interactive workshops, they are used to spark discussions and enhance understanding of how various trends could affect specific regions or topics — such as the Western Balkans.
DLR-PT Foresight studies as a Basis for Discussion
The interactive part of the workshop aimed to make foresight more tangible by allowing participants to engage directly with trends. Using a set of trend cards based on the European Commission’s study “Strategic Foresight in the Western Balkans: Recovery on the Horizon” and the Regional Cooperation Council’s (RCC) recent publication "Unleashing the Potential for Competitiveness: Trends in the Western Balkans" – both conducted by DLR-PT – participants were encouraged to discuss which trends remain relevant, which new trends have emerged, and how these trends could shape the future of the region.
Using Trend Cards: An Interactive Exercises to Envision the Future
Based on the trend cards, participants were invited to
- “Dream Big,” envisioning the best possible future for their institutions
- “Invent” a future product, service or strategy, or
- “Connect the Dots,” exploring how different trends might interact and amplify each other.
The key aim was not to predict the future but to encourage forward-thinking discussions and foster a shared understanding of the forces shaping the region’s future.
The session concluded with a reflection on the trends and how they could inform decision-making and policy formulation in the Western Balkans, with the hope that participants will carry this forward-thinking mindset back to their daily work.