Below we review five common methods that can be useful and complementary in the SRIA development process, but also beyond it at later stages of revising and updating the SRIAs.
Foresight
Our future depends on the decisions we make today. Foresight processes aim to support such decisions and mobilise joint action by identifying desirable futures among a range of possible ones. Foresight is a member of a larger family of forward-looking activities that aim for a structured analysis of future developments by identifying and discussing strategic topics.
Foresight can be envisaged as a triangle combining “Thinking the Future”, “Debating the Future” and “Shaping the Future”. [Acheson, H. et al. (2002). Thinking, debating, and shaping the future. Foresight for Europe. European Commission. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.21056.15367]
It invites us to consider the future as something that we can explore, discuss, and actively shape. R&I actors can draw on foresight processes to explore different scenarios in a structured, systematic, and transparent way to consider complex challenges and help create a better future. Foresight helps:
- Assess current priorities and potential new directions in the light of possible futures.
- Analyse how the impacts of possible decisions may combine with other developments.
- Inform, support, and link policymaking in and across a range of domains and levels.
- Identify emerging technologies, societal demands and challenges, and business models.
- Anticipate future developments, disruptive events, threats, and opportunities.
Foresight can help R&I Partnerships to identify gaps and opportunities in a broader R&I landscape. Engaging other partnerships and R&I actors in joint foresight activities helps partnerships gain a better oversight of what the future might hold. European Partnerships can use foresight in various ways, both building on existing analyses or starting new processes in collaboration with the relevant actors.
Common foresight methods include scenario planning, horizon scanning, workshops, and mega-trends analysis. The following resources provide valuable information for learning more about conducting foresight processes.
Evidence-based decision making
The review of relevant documents can be used in the SRIA development process to take stock of relevant discussions, transformation maps, technology roadmaps and policy goals, to build the SRIA or keep track of developments in a certain area. The review can provide a baseline for the analysis of the policy context and the research and innovation context of a partnership and as a starting point for further activities and consultation. It can be relevant policies, foresight studies, thematic reports, academic literature depending on the purpose and available resources.
It can be useful to consult meta-reviews and systematic reviews across the key themes of the partnership, as well as identify sources that regularly conduct such review and collect information in each area. Setting a systematic process of literature review can form part of broader strategic intelligence efforts that ensure that the organisation has at hand the most relevant and useful information for making strategic decisions. An increasingly broad range of AI tools are available to support and streamline the literature review process.
Public online consultation
An online consultation is usually implemented as a survey/questionnaire, inviting a broad range of stakeholders to give input on specific aspects of the SRIA. In the SRIA development process, it can serve two purposes, depending on the timing of the public consultation:
- Early on: Identification of key trends and recommendations in R&I to inform the long-term vision and themes of the SRIA. Public consultations with these purposes are usually used in the early stages of SRIA development.
- At a later stage: Feedback on an advanced draft of the SRIA, usually in combination with a public draft SRIA document. Stakeholders are invited to comment on the SRIA in an open form or via a dedicated survey/questionnaire. Oftentimes, targeted dissemination to relevant audiences can facilitate the quality and relevance of inputs.
It may involve a broad range of actors, including researchers, industry, higher education institutions, ministry officials, industry/professional associations, research funding organizations, community groups / NGOs, companies, entrepreneurs and members of the public. It is important to ensure that the survey is accessible and tailored to the different groups of stakeholders.
Consultation and co-creation workshops
Co-creation workshops can be used in several formats, each with differing purposes, usually implemented multiple times during an iterative SRIA development process.
Expert and stakeholder workshops
Purpose: Collating information on SRIA and Vision structure and priorities, identification of joint activities to achieve objectives.
Target group: key stakeholders research community, policymakers, enterprises, industry associations, EU/international NGOs and civic/local initiatives.
National and/or regional consultation
Purpose: Consultation on national priorities, identification of common issues that require joint and coordinated actions at EU and global levels, reflection and alignment of the SRIA priorities with national/regional ones.
Target group: national experts, regional and/or local stakeholders and national decision/policymakers.
Workshops with Scientific Advisory Board and/or Strategic Advisory Board
Purpose: Consultation of an established stakeholder group representing the research community to identify and/or further develop the SRIA’s research priorities. Depending upon process design and partnership governance structure, the involvement of the Scientific Advisory Board and/or Strategic Advisory Board could lay the basis for the identification of research priorities and subsequent stakeholder involvement activities.
Internal workshop
Purpose: Feedback and further development of draft Vision document, draft monitoring indicators and SRIA themes from the partnership’s governing bodies to facilitate internal consultation and agreement.
Target group: Partnership’s Advisory Board, Governing Board, Stakeholder Advisory Board, and similar.
Semi-structured interviews
Semi-structured expert interviews are particularly well-suited to collect input from specific, previously identified experts and stakeholders that were not (or not sufficiently) reached through other methods. Combining a pre-defined questionnaire with spontaneous questions allows exploring complex issues, deepening understanding, and clarifying answers to questions.
Purpose: Targeted interviews to identify key R&I trends, research priorities, and common issues; gathering information on SRIA structure and priorities; feedback on SRIA draft.
Target group: National and international experts and stakeholders that were underrepresented in public consultations.
