Citizen Foresight Europe

Start Date: 01\05\2024
End Date: 30\04\2026
Website: https://foresight.resilientcities.eu/

Citizen Foresight EU is a project funded under the EU’s CERV programme (Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values), coordinated by Comparative Research Network e.V. (CRN, Berlin) alongside seven European partners: BISI (Bulgaria), Fondazione E35 and LINKS (Italy), Stadtlabor (Austria), ALDA (France), and IFJ (Belgium).

The project starts from a concrete problem: young first-time voters, women, people with disabilities, LGBTIQ communities, EU mobile citizens and lower-income groups remain significantly underrepresented in European elections and policy debates. Citizen Foresight EU addresses this through eight local workshops held across Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany and Italy, each led by a different partner on a specific theme: social inclusion, gender equality, impact economy, climate action, social sustainability, democratic strengthening and local governance.

The methodology draws on established foresight and scenario planning techniques (such as Future Search, Open Space, media signal analysis, Delphi method etc.) adapted for non-specialist participants. Rather than top-down consultation, the process is citizen-led: participants co-create future scenarios and translate them into concrete policy recommendations for local and European decision-makers.

All outputs feed into WP1, coordinated by CRN, which produces a publicly available foresight toolkit (published with ISBN and deposited at the German National Library), a synthesis report on future scenarios for Europe, and targeted policy recommendations. Findings are disseminated through the project website, public events, and open-access publications.

The project runs for 24 months and engages between 700 and 900 participants from 13 to 15 European countries.