FutuResilience at the WIDERA Feedback to Policy Workshop

The European Commission hosted the WIDERA Feedback-to-Policy workshop on 2 October 2025 in Brussels. The event brought together Horizon Europe – WIDERA projects that have played a significant role in co-creating the European Research Area (ERA) through their results. 

The workshop provided an opportunity to follow and engage in discussions on policy-relevant measures, reform priorities, and systemic changes in the European research and innovation landscape. Key policy topics addressed included sustainable research careers, gender equality, research replicability, the ethics of artificial intelligence, and knowledge valorisation. 

The FutuResilience project was presented as part of the Knowledge Valorisation ERA action. The project catalyses the valorisation of knowledge assets resulting from years of investment in research and innovation in practice via ten challenge-based labs set up as policy experimentation spaces. 

The project coordinator, Matias Barberis from EFIS Centre, presented five key learnings from the project and the way they are contributing to ERA goals: 

• The project tested future-oriented methods (scenario development, speculative design, science-fiction narratives, backcasting, agent-based modelling, etc.) and conducted a simulation exercise to understand different way of approaching policymaking processes applied to societal resilience.
• The project design supported the labs building social capital and consolidated networks across stakeholders with diverse knowledge and visions – beyond traditional engagement.
• The labs worked with ‘transdisciplinary knowledge generation’ (including third-sector analysis, citizens experiences, etc.). Acceptance of and trust in diversity and structured integration of non-expert knowledge in some labs were the key to designing relevant policy recommendations and strategies.
• Results revealed a policy ‘windows of opportunity’: when topic and knowledge generated were of high political relevance, the findings were integrated without any obstacle.
• In certain fields, policies could become outdated: there is the need for policymakers to engage at early stages for effective uptake and create supporting (digital) tools that could facilitate and accelerate knowledge valorisation 

Finally, Dr. Barberis presented key policy recommendations to further amplify these contributions. These include reinforcing the role of intermediary organisations, designing valorisation “sandboxes” as experimental spaces to test novel approaches, and identifying mechanisms for adding value to existing forms of knowledge.