Many research centers face the challenge of planning for the future in a way that is both strategic and inclusive. This Futures Workshop
will bring together CIDTFF members to co-create a shared vision for the center and define concrete steps to achieve it. Using a participatory methodology, we will explore alternative futures, discuss the role of the Inner Development Goals (IDGs) in our practices, and identify key actions that align with our collective aspirations. The goal is to develop a collaborative action plan that reflects diverse perspectives and strengthens CIDTFF’s long-term impact.

This workshop is part of a larger project that is examining climate, biodiversity and water across the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. Previous research has shown that businesses currently aren’t adequately considering climate change and biodiversity loss in their assessment of value chain risks. During the workshop, we will be asking businesses to think about the futures of their businesses, how their value chains could change, and what type of future they would like to create. The research goals will be two-fold: first, we want to get business leaders thinking about the connections between their business models and climate and biodiversity; second, we as researchers want to gain an overview of climate and biodiversity risks across a variety of sectors and get a sense of industry partners who we might want to work with during future phases of the larger project.

The ULALABS project aims to define a theoretical and practical framework for the implementation and operation of a European distributed Living Lab focused on urban challenges and climate change; a “Lab of Labs” perceived as a shared and interconnected R+D+I infrastructure among HEI partners to promote transformative innovation policies within and among European regions through the articulation of open and collaborative Learning Communities and shared Agendas.

This research is about an innovation network and aims to investigate how value creation and collaboration might be improved from a member perspective. We have so far been collecting primary data through interviews and meeting observations and have also started analysing secondary data such as network reports in order to better understand the perceived member value of individuals and member organisations. A futures workshop is planned for spring 2025 to co-design the future of the network. The research project is currently confidential.

Mushrooming is a 15-year-old large network of self-organizing coworking spaces in Finland. It functions in the biggest cities, offering connections for people to find a membership in a coworking space, new spaces for their coworking communities, or new members to share the costs of running such a space. Mushrooming holds a lot of potentials that are not yet developed, and it could highly profit of new ideas and new contributors brought in by FW process.

Read more here page 99.

Photo by Sebastian Jäntti, at coworking space 33 in Turku.