European Commission Secretariat-General & JRC Competence Centre on Foresight
European Union
Leads the annual Strategic Foresight Report cycle, the JRC Megatrends Hub and wind-tunnelling in the Better Regulation toolbox.
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Who's whoThe global ecosystem of policy foresight
High-performing jurisdictions do not rely on isolated futurists. They connect supranational bodies, national units, parliaments, regions and independent think tanks, so that analytical supply meets executive demand.
20 bodies · Listing does not imply partnership or endorsement.
ESPAS & the EU “Ministers for the Future” network
EU institutions and 27 member states
Links the Commission, the European Parliament's research service, the Council and member-state future ministers to align long-term strategy.
European Committee of the Regions & Strategic Foresight Partnership
EU cities and regions
Multilevel, participatory foresight through a network of cities and regions including Breda, Friesland, Rotterdam, the Basque Country and Catalonia.
OECD Strategic Foresight Unit & Observatory of Public Sector Innovation
38 member countries and partners
Developed the Anticipatory Innovation Governance framework, reviews national foresight systems and curates public-sector innovation toolkits.
United Nations: Summit of the Future architecture
Global
Custodian of the 2024 Pact for the Future, the Global Digital Compact and the Declaration on Future Generations, due for review in 2028.
Policy Horizons Canada
Government of Canada
Federal centre of excellence behind the Horizons Foresight Method and its training manual, and a partner in experiential programmes such as Canada Beyond 150.
Centre for Strategic Futures & Civil Service College
Singapore, Prime Minister's Office
Runs 20-year national scenarios, Scenario Planning Plus, digital scanning, Driving Forces cards and FutureCraft training.
UK Government Office for Science
United Kingdom
Publishes the Futures Toolkit (Delphi, backcasting, horizon scanning, policy gaming) and trend decks used across Whitehall.
Committee for the Future, Parliament of Finland
Finland
Permanent committee that reviews the government's Report on the Future, required once per electoral term.
Future Generations Commissioner for Wales
Wales, United Kingdom
Oversees the Well-being of Future Generations Act and the integration of impact assessments across public bodies.
DPMC Policy Project
New Zealand
Embeds policy stewardship, assumption testing, futures wheels and wind-tunnelling in Cabinet and departmental advice.
WRR, Scientific Council for Government Policy
Netherlands
Independent statutory council producing cross-decade reports, such as Report 104 on sustainable care with horizons to 2060.
Rathenau Instituut
Netherlands
Technology assessment, backcasting dialogues on the science of the future and longitudinal surveys of trust in science.
TNO & RIVM
Netherlands
Five-to-ten-year technology radars for healthy and safe work, built with impact trees for the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment.
NIPV, Netherlands Institute for Public Safety
Netherlands
Crisis-management foresight (Toekomstverkenning Crisisbeheersing), tracing the move from incident command to continuous process management.
NCTV, National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism
Netherlands
National security trend analyses, including converging biological risks and declining societal immunity.
Nesta
United Kingdom
Pioneered anticipatory regulation and its principles, and curates futures toolkits.
School of International Futures (SOIF)
United Kingdom and international
Codified the features of effective systemic foresight in governments for the UK Government Office for Science.
Centre for Future Generations (CFG)
European Union
Shapes EU thinking on technology, verification and intergenerational leverage, including submissions to the 2026 Strategic Foresight Report.
Cascade Institute
Canada
Models polycrises with Cross-Impact Balance analysis.
How strong systems connect
Matching analytical supply with executive demand
The School of International Futures' study for the UK Government Office for Science found that effective systems work across cultural, procedural and human-capital layers at once.
Culture
Leaders ask for futures work and are willing to hear uncomfortable findings.
Procedure
Foresight has fixed entry points in planning, budgeting, regulation and evaluation.
People
Trained civil servants and networks that carry methods from one ministry to the next.
Read the study: Features of effective systemic foresight in governments around the world
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Tell us about a foresight unit, parliamentary committee or regional network we should add.