WiSo researcher appointed to Foresight Panel
Which developments in technology and society are possible, probable, and desirable? Prof. Dr. Veronika Grimm has been appointed by the Federal Minister of Education and Research, Anja Karliczek, to the newly-founded Foresight Panel to help answer this question. In this committee, experts from science, business and culture develop scenarios for the future that reach into the 2030s.
‘Foresight’ is a strategic process that seeks to look into the future in the longer term. Possible, probable and desirable developments with a timescale of up to 15 years are analysed. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has been carrying out the Foresight initiative with varying areas of focus since the 1990s. A new Foresight process has now been launched. The purpose of the process is to investigate the technological and societal changes that society will face in the near future.
The Ministry takes a two-pronged approach: Firstly, a Foresight Office uses scientific methods to systematically search for trends and issues that could be important in the future. Secondly, the Foresight Panel advises the Ministry which of these issues are especially important for education and research and should be examined in more detail in further studies. In addition, both collaborate to establish probable future scenarios: Experts are surveyed and trends are extrapolated in order to describe possible, probable and desirable futures. During the initial step, a study about future changes in the values of people in Germany is planned. Which values will be important to people in the future? Who or what will teach values?
Prof. Dr. Veronika Grimm is one of 17 experts on the Foresight Panel. She focuses on energy markets, energy market modelling, behavioural economics, social networks and auctions. At FAU, she holds the Chair of Economic Theory. In addition, she is Head of the Scientific Board at Energie Campus Nürnberg (EnCN) as well as a Member of the Board of the newly-founded Bavarian Hydrogen Centre (H2.B). Furthermore, Prof. Grimm is a member of various high-profile national advisory committees such as the Board of Academic Advisors of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy or the Expert Commission for the Monitoring Process ‘Energy of the Future’.
Project website for the newly launched Foresight process (in German): www.vorausschau.de
Website of the Foresight Initiative (in German): www.bmbf.de/de/mit-foresight-in-die-zukunft-schauen-930.html
Press release from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (in German): www.bmbf.de/de/karliczek-wir-schauen-in-die-zukunft-9549.html
Further information:
Prof. Dr. Veronika Grimm
Phone: +49 911 5302 224
veronika.grimm@fau.de