FUTURESILIENCE 1st Policy Roundtable

The FUTURESILIENCE project aims to strengthen European economic and social resilience through an enhanced ability to quickly respond to future crises. This will be accomplished by facilitating the fast and effective use of policy relevant research and innovation (R&I) findings through 10 pilot cases called 'Future Resilience Labs'. During the experimentation, multiple stakeholders will discuss and test evidence-based strategies tailored to their specific context and matching their local needs. 

The project fosters knowledge valorisation for creating resilience at local and regional levels. As defined by the European Commission “knowledge valorisation is the process of creating social and economic value from knowledge by linking different areas and sectors and transforming data, know-how and research results into sustainable products, services, solutions and knowledge-based policies that benefit society.” It calls for the participation of all actors including users of research results and technological developments, policymakers and citizens. 

The linkage between science, society and policy is key to enhance societal resilience. Science can help policymaking by providing knowledge, attitudes, and skills to address societal challenges and increased preparedness for future shocks. Society can contribute to policymaking by first, contributing to frame societal challenges from experience, and second, actively engaging in policy design and implementation. Finally, policymakers should better understand how people deal with complexity and how science-based policies can add positive value to societies and economies. 

The first policy roundtable aimed at engaging policymakers in an interactive discussion on the progress of the FUTURESILIENCE project, in particularly discussing the role of evidence for building policies oriented to increase preparedness and presenting the FUTURESILIENCE labs approaches. 

The agenda was structured in two parts: first, presenting the preliminary outputs of the project – a Knowledge Base of policy-relevant R&I findings to build societal resilience, and a Toolbox to support policy and decision makers to set up a participatory process that underpins future oriented policies for societal resilience. Second, showcasing three FUTURESILIENCE labs and the way the project is contributing to valorise knowledge for building resilience at local level.

You can watch the recordings on YouTube