WHY FORESIGHT?

The Science and Technology Foresight Project has carried out initiatives of great relevance, in order to define research strategies able to address crucial social problems related to energy, food, health, water, as well as the cross-sectoral topic of breakthrough innovative materials.

Both, the holistic approach applied to the analysis of the topics, as well as the innovative format of the invitation only workshops, enticed the participation of internationally acknowledged experts. This framework guaranteed all participants the necessary conditions to carry out an open interactive debate, consolidating a collective intelligence, which assisted in achieving a consensus on research priorities, knowledge gaps, and funding needs. read more...

OUTREACH OF THE PROJECT

The countries of provenance of the experts, who participated in the  workshops, is reported in the map.
The active participation not only of the CNR researchers directly involved in the project, but also of researchers of many CNR Institutes belonging to different departments (Chemical sciences and materials technologies, Physical sciences and technologies of matter, Engineering, ICT, energy, and transportation, Agricultural and food sciences, Biomedical sciences, Earth system science and environmental technologies), is of particular relevance. Among the external participants, many are researchers and experts from both, important international universities and research centers, as well as from international organizations such as FAO, European Commission, EFSA, FDA, NSF.

Collaboration agreements have been finalized with: the Italian Ministry of Health in the occasion of the G7, 2017; the Global Good Fund of Innovation Venture (Seattle, USA), for the co-organization of workshops related to the agri-food topics; Innogest, to stimulate fund raising, for innovative technologies related to the agri-food sector.

Members of the Foresight Project have been invited to present results at a number of national and international events and conferences and in various publications.

ACTIVITY

The Foresight Project has involved the international scientific community in the effort of identifying innovative, scientifically based, medium/long term solutions of problems within the four areas mentioned above. The current social needs have been identified as the drivers for change and the proposed solutions must address them. Each problem is a big challenge by itself, and it becomes even more substantial when considering that all issues are connected., Looking for a proper identification of both the relevant features of each problem, as well as the current knowledge gaps, which must be overcome, we adopted a systems approach. The goal is to move beyond a linear view of cause and effect, towards the development of a systemic and integrated view.

The results can be summarized as follows (for details see the workshops’ reports available on the website foresight.cnr.it) read more...

WG COORDINATOR:
Antonino Salvatore Aricò
E-Mail: antoninosalvatore.arico@cnr.it

WG COORDINATOR:
Sara Colantonio
F. Manlio Bacco
E-Mail: sara.colantonio@isti.cnr.it
E-Mail: manlio.bacco@isti.cnr.it

WG COORDINATOR:
Cecilia Bartolucci
E-Mail: cecilia.bartolucci@cnr.it

WG COORDINATOR:
Stefano Lepri
E-Mail: stefano.lepri@fi.isc.cnr.it

WG COORDINATOR:
Caterina Cinti
E-Mail: caterina.cinti@cnr.it

WG COORDINATOR:
Antonello Provenzale
E-Mail: antonello.provenzale@cnr.it

WG COORDINATOR:
Pier Francesco Moretti
E-Mail: pierfrancesco.moretti@cnr.it