Referencing the Future: The EU’s Projected Security Roles and Their R&D Implications

Abstract

This paper describes the methodology of how the FOCUS project’s initial 24 thematic scenarios – covering five security “Big Themes” – were cross-referenced and distilled to a single Reference scenario for each of the five Themes. Each Reference scenario thus points to a future security role the EU could be expected to play in the year 2035 and its implied Security Research objectives needed to support that role – all thus forming the basis for FOCUS’ ultimate goal: a roadmap for future EU Security Research.