How will our world look like in the future? – FORESIGHT project Mid-way conference at METU

Under the FORESIGHT Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership project in the cooperation of five European universities the Mid-way conference was organised on the 5^th of June 2020. The host of the event was Budapest Metropolitan University (METU, Hungary). Due to the pandemic situation the conference was held online. 

After the brief welcome speech of the Rector of METU Prof. Oguz Demir from Istanbul Ticaret University presented the most important achievements of the project. He emphasised the significance of the two intensive trainings held in the partner universities; one for the teachers held in November 2019 and another one for the students in January 2020. During these trainings 5-5 teachers and 20-20 students from the partners gained new knowledge and special skills in the field of future research through specific team-work projects.

Then the 3 internationally recognised keynote speakers gave their presentations. First Prof. Zoltán Szántó from Corvinus University of Budapest was talking about the significance of ‘Social futuring’. This is a new, multidisciplinary approach that provides a holistic view to measure a social entity’s ability to strategically plan for and sustain itself into the future while attempting to maintain the broad goal for its constituent members of achieving a “good life”. 

Prof. Dr. Oscan Saritas from the Higher School of Economics, Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge / Department of Educational Programmes, Moscow gave an exciting and comprehensive analysis on ‘Designing the future in the time of pandemic: Knowns, Unknowns & Wild Cards’. 

The third keynote speaker was Patrick van der Duin, Director of the Netherlands Study Centre for Technology Trends, presented four possible post-COVID scenarios related to his country. 

After that the Partners’ speeches took place on ‘How is the content of the project beneficial for the stakeholders, the industrial partners, the academics and the students as the four main target groups?’

Then in the final part of the conference Budapest Metropolitan University, as the responsible partner,  introduced a new online platform that contains projec-specific content and e-learning materials.

The event was followed by over a hundred visitors via Zoom and the YouTube channel of METU. The language of the conference was English.