Futures Forum

Creating effective spaces for knowledge exchange between researchers and policy communities presents significant challenges. Stakeholders, often from varied institutions and with languages and behavioural norms frequently face pressures to produce immediate answers and results. Furthermore, their involvement in events is typically characterised by diverging agendas and grapples with different uncertainties. In response, we developed the Futures Forum to bridge these gaps in needs, expertise and alleviate pressures, emphasising the value of collective insight. Our aim was to establish more inclusive environments, particularly for early-career researchers less familiar with policy engagement, enabling them to contribute on equal footing with seasoned experts. Recognising the substantial pressures all participants face, we designed the Futures Forum to be a flexible and adaptable model suitable for a broad range of policy issues.

After refining our approach through multiple applications across various policy challenges from 2023 to 2024, we created the Future Forum Toolkit. This resource is designed to extend our methodology to a broader audience, empowering them to independently organize impactful Futures Forum events.

Explore the toolkit now

The Toolkit includes a separate, editable document featuring supportive artefacts that organisers can easily adapt and utilise as required.

futures_forum_toolkit_-_supplementary_artefacts_-_07.2024.docx

Our previous work

Futures Forum on Health Inequalities

We held the 'Futures Forum on Health Inequalities' on September 12th 2023 alongside the UCL Institute of Healthcare Engineering. This brought together policymakers and academics to explore future scenarios for addressing health disparities.

You can access the Futures Forum Event Report: Health Inequalities here.

VaxHub Futures Forum on Pandemic Preparedness

We co-hosted the 'VaxHub Futures Forum on Pandemic Preparedness' on July 18th 2024 alongside VaxHub Global and VaxHub Sustainable, as part of the UCL Festival of Engineering. Participants from academia, government, industry, funding and advisory bodies joined this event to explore potential future scenarios for pandemic preparedness.

You can access the event report here.