UK Foresight: three cycles on a highway

Abstract

The first cycle of the UK's Foresight Programme set out to define priorities for S&T policy, and to enhance the functioning of innovation systems. The second cycle, with less linkage to innovation policy, was prematurely terminated. The third cycle focuses on a small number of critical areas. Related activities – often labelled horizon-scanning or roadmapping – have proliferated across the UK government system. But problems are seen in their lack of coordination and failure to support overall prioritisation of S&T policies. The paper puts these developments, and the broad range of activities that are now underway in the UK, in context.