Future resources
Foresight Toolkits look to strengthen futures thinking capacity and share best practice within and across government so those responsible for developing policy and strategy in government understand how the decisions they make today might affect the future. In this way, Foresight can help policy makers to reach more stable decisions that are more likely to survive the uncertainties of the future.
The Foresight Horizon Scanning Centre provides tools and support to spread good practice in departmental horizon scanning, including coaching, providing advice, brokering agreements and creating synergies that make the best use of resources and facilitate capacity-building.
They include:
Strategic Horizon Scans
The Sigma Scan is a set of 271 research papers that look up to 50 years into the future. The scan considers emerging trends, potential new issues and their associated opportunities, threats and possible implications for society.
Information for the scans comes from more than 2000 document sources and interviews with 300 leading thinkers, condensed into papers designed to challenge assumptions and spark ideas.
In 2008, the centre merged two scans: the Delta Scan is an overview of future issues and trends in science and technology; and the Sigma Scan a synthesis of future issues and trends across the full public policy agenda. Thirty-three new papers were also added.
The papers can be accessed at www.sigmascan.org
Good practice
The HSC publishes and regularly updates a toolkit based on the work of the Foresight programme.
