1. FORESIGHT BRIDGE JULY 6, 2004 DG RESEARCH, BRUSSELS
Zoya Damianova, ARC Fund

2. Foresight Bridge
To date, Foresight has (mostly at national, but also at regional and European level) been widely used for different purposes (sectoral development, special regional issues, social orientation, promoting competitiveness, etc.) leading more or less directly to policy changes.
The Foresight Bridge countries could build a regional platform allowing for European policies and issues to be taken into account in a systematic and cooperative way.

3. ForeTech project http://foretech.online.bg
Applied Research and Communications Fund (ARC Fund), Bulgaria - Coordinator
CRIMM Foundation, Romania
Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas, Greece
School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES), University College London, UK
PREST (Policy Research in Engineering, Science and Technology), the Victoria University of Manchester, UK
Technology Centre AS CR, the Czech Republic
National Office of Research and Technology, Hungary

4. ForeTech Mission
to introduce foresight activities in Bulgaria and Romania, building upon the experience and know-how gained by projects and initiatives already supported by the European Commission
to implement pilot foresight initiatives in the two countries
to build up capacity and competence on foresight through transfer of experience and know-how from the consortium partners from the UK, Hungary and the Czech Republic
to contribute to the pool of knowledge on foresight in Europe through analysing the foresight exercises in Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and the Czech Republic + Malta, Cyprus and Estonia
to elaborate recommendations to the European Commission and policy-makers at other governance levels for specific measures to support S&T policies in the candidate countries and the new member states

5. eForesee project http://www.eforesee.info
Crehan, Kusano & Associates sprl - Belgium
Malta Council for Science and Technology - Malta
The Agricultural Research Institute - Cyprus
The Institute for Baltic Studies - Estonia
PRAXIS Center for Policy Studies - Estonia

6. Why the Foresight Bridge?
To ensure the sustainability of the foresight initiatives in the New Member States and the candidate countries
To identify common needs and develop a new Europe-wide foresight initiative

7. Some ideas for discussion
Innovation-oriented foresight – how to teach and educate people to be more innovative; how to develop and optimise the innovation systems (European, national, regional, sectoral)
Sectoral foresight exercises – at national level – how to achieve more tangible outcomes and impact, and stronger involvement of the industry (market-oriented initiatives)
Regional foresight exercises – could be developed in synergy with the RIS initiatives starting in 2005 – practical implementation of the country guides on regional foresight and the Blueprints