Summer 2024 Bulletin: Transformation and Resilience
A new European Parliament has been elected. We are grateful for the privilege of doing scientific research on a continent which is democratic and invested in knowledge and fact. Needless to say, the forming of a new European Parliament and Commission will bring about many changes. FutuRes continues to use research and transdisciplinary exchange to prepare for Europe’s demographic future. Today we inform the FutuRes Policy Lab community about our activities, past and future.
The Policy Lab in the past quarter:
FutuRes experts met in Brussels with the EU Vice-President for Demography and Democracy, Dubravka Šuica, to discuss policy pathways through Europe’s demographic shifts.
At a conference of leading European policy experts, FutuRes researchers expressed clear standpoints on policy priorities.
The Policy Lab brought together the population policy teams from five country governments and two regional governments to foster exchange between European policymakers across borders.
FutuRes experts spoke to the BBC in an insightful feature about Europe’s fertility rates. Further media appearances of our experts include the Financial Times, the Guardian, Rzeczpospolita, Die Welt and Perspective Daily.
The FutuRes research team in Warsaw published this Policy Insight laying out ways to support fertility resilience during crises.
FutuRes Policy experts Jakub Bijak and Anna Rotkirch presented their findings on a panel on Foresight in EU Policy at the European Population Conference, following an excellent presentation by Deša Srsen of the Cabinet of the EU Vice-President for Demography and Democracy.
Head of FutuRes Research Arnstein Aassve and Advisory Board member Pearl Dykstra explain the Policy Lab in this video.
Coming up in September: We are pleased to announce that on September 26, FutuRes is hosting an online citizen workshop where our researchers will meet with the public to discuss questions of ageism and policy. The workshop is targeted at civil society organisations and their members, both on the national and EU level. Click here to share the invitation for this workshop with organisations that may wish to join us.
Also coming up in September: For the next step in the Qualitative Scenario Building process, FutuRes is meeting with experts to match the perspective of research with that of practice. More than 100 experts from policy, civil society and academia from all over Europe have been invited to work with our foresight experts in the FutuRes scenario building workshops in September 2024. In these focused meetings, the experts will be presented with a number of key influencing factors and projections for resilience in Europe’s demographic development, which have already been defined by our FutuRes research team (read all the latest research reports here).
The factors and projections cover topics such as care, migration and economic development. Based on their experience and knowledge, the experts will be asked to assess possible connections and correlations between different manifestations of each key factor. As a result, they will develop holistic scenarios for possible and desirable futures of resilient European demography - and provide an evidence-based foundation for policy-making. The results of the discussion will inform the FutuRes Foresight Documents, which will be presented in 2025.
We are extremely grateful to have your expertise as part of the FutuRes Policy Lab community. Please consider following our social media to get informed about all our activities and to engage with us.
