Our impact
Foresight’s impact can be seen both in Government and within the various project communities. The list below describes how each project has catalysed action.
Click on the titles below for more information about the individual projects or read general information about Foresight projects.
Published in 2007 our report brought fresh insights to the consideration and analysis of the growing social, economic and medical threats of obesity in the UK.
The project played a central role in informing “Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives: a cross-government strategy for England”.
- This strategy was launched in January 2008 by the Cross-Government Obesity Unit (led jointly by the Department of Health and the Department for Children, Schools and Families), and involved an additional investment of £372 million over the period 2008-11. Since the launch, nine local authorities have become actively involved in a high profile public awareness program called ‘Change 4 Life’.
- The Devolved Administrations have drawn on the project’s findings. For example, the Scottish Executive drew heavily on the Foresight study when writing “Healthy Eating, Active Living: an action plan to improve diet, increase physical activity and tackle obesity”.
- The project informed “Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives: A toolkit for delivering local strategies”. This was produced by the National Heart Forum in partnership with the Faculty of Public Health, the Department of Innovation Universities and Skills and the Department of Health.
This project took a global perspective and considered how to manage the future threats of infectious diseases in plants, animals and humans.
Since being published in 2006:
- Foresight worked with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Organisation for Animal Health to submit a joint paper to the Russian Presidency of the G8 in 2006. Drawing on the project’s findings, this paper substantially informed the summit communiqué.
- After the launch of the project findings, discussions and workshops were held with the African Union, key trans-African organisations and major international donors. Subsequently, a consortium of around 25 leading African institutions from five countries planned the creation and establishment of the Southern African Centre for Infectious Disease Surveillance (SACIDS). SACIDS has now attracted support from major international funders such as Google.org, the Wellcome Trust and the Rockefeller Foundation.
- In October 2008, John Denham (then Secretary of State for the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills) announced £55 million funding over 5 years for an innovation platform to develop diagnostic technologies. This initiative is led by the UK’s Technology Strategy Board and was developed in partnership with the Department for Health and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. It will produce new rapid diagnostic tests and point-of-care devices for the detection and identification of infectious agents in both humans and animals.
Published in 2004, this project looked at the future threat of flooding in the UK, and considered options for managing those risks.
- The project substantially informed “Making Space for Water”; a Defra-led, cross-government 20 year strategy for addressing flooding and coastal erosion in England. In particular, it provided the evidence base which helped to justify a doubling of Government expenditure to an additional £300 million.
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The Pitt Review – lessons learned from the 2007 floods, published 2008. The UK’s 2007 flood events were the most economically costly in the world that year; tens of thousands of households and businesses were flooded and damages ran to billions of pounds. The government asked Sir Michael Pitt to review their cause and how the impact of such events might be mitigated in the future. Future Flooding, the ‘most credible and comprehensive consideration of future flood risk in the UK’ provided the Review’s scientific foundation. Sir Michael commissioned FF’s lead authors to provide an update of some of their scientific analyses to inform his study and to put its comprehensive suite of recommendations on a robust, evidence-based footing.
- The project’s innovative methodology has also informed flood-risk management in other parts of the world:
- Foresight has worked on a joint programme with China: “Scenario Analysis Technology for River Basin Flood Risk Management in the Taihu Basin”. Within China, this is a “Flagship Program” for sustainable environment development. The three-year programme which concluded in November 2009, involved two government ministries, The China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research together with the Taihu Basin Management Authority.
- Foresight officials and lead scientists have worked with US Army Corps of Engineers, the Institute for Water Resources and the Engineering Research and Development Centre to explore potential US interest in developing Foresight-style regional and national projects for flood and coastal defence. As a result, a regional demonstrator is underway in New York and one in the Gulf of Mexico is in the scoping phase – the latter has been developed in conjunction with an existing 5-state alliance on coastal vulnerability and resiliency. A national study is also under discussion.
