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We recently reviewed the ESPAS (European Strategy and Policy Analysis System) Horizon Scanning report, Issue 7 f rom March this year. Issue 8 from July adopts the same approach of looking at 14 or 15 signals of change and focussing on three of them to describe in detail using Futures Wheels: Military-grade society Digital tech giants become state actors Green hype bust.   Military grade society  means advanced security protecting Critical National Infrastructure from both at

We recently reviewed the EC Strategic Foresight Report , entitled Resilience 2.0, but ESPAS (the European Strategy and Policy Analysis System) also produces frequent Horizon Scanning reports. Their most recent reports from 2025 (Issues 7 and 8 – earlier Issues do not appear to be easily accessible) identify 14 or 15 signals of change. In each they have focussed on describing the details of three of them. They seem to have deliberately looked for “weak signals”, some very unce

What happens to climate action when the political weather turns populist: more inward-looking, more suspicious of experts, more focused on growth and national pride than on multilateral promises? That’s no longer an abstract question. Across the West, parties and leaders with nativist or “majoritarian” instincts are either in office or within reach of it. Meanwhile, China is doubling down on renewables and exporting the kit to the rest of the world. If you work in energy, ind

The Government Office for Science has produced an updated report on the technology mix needed in key emitting sectors to reach net zero...

One of the challenges of Futures thinking is the way that trends and drivers interact with each other in complex ways, creating...

The EC’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) has recently published a report on technology horizon scanning they conducted during 2024,...

SAMI continues to maintain and track key drivers of change through ongoing horizon scanning, and we noted a couple of years ago that the...

Finding paths through the “World in Oak” These days you may find yourself waking up in the morning, switching on or logging into the...

Our work on the Futures Toolkit included illustrating the tools with many different case studies. Here’s another – the work that SAMI...

Most of the debate about immigration in recent years has been around how to control and limit it. Irregular immigration across the...