Explore and analyse

Future analysis

Future analysis provides a basis for decision making that makes plans and strategies more resilient by actively managing uncertainty, giving organisations a greater ability to navigate an uncertain environment and meet the complex challenges of the future.

Through our expertise in futures analysis, RISE can help individual organisations, industries or society as a whole to take advantage of the opportunities that the future brings. We provide active support in driving development towards a desired future - whether it is unlocking potential in technology and innovation, highlighting a desirable shift and position for an organisation, or something else entirely. 

Based on our independence and using scientific methods, RISE works with future analysis in a number of different ways: 

• We take on the role of analysts and process managers to carry out foresight projects and future studies.
• We can carry out environmental and systemic analysis to identify trends and shifts that are already evident today, as well as trend analysis to indicate future developments.
• We use future scenarios to paint multiple pictures of how the world might develop and explore alternative futures through workshops and games.
• We help organisations implement and drive strategic foresight to complement investment in new technologies and innovation, and to analyse their role in wider transitions and changes in the economy and society.

Research and specialisation

Do you need to prepare the basis for a decision on the further development of a drug? Test the viability of an entirely new business model? Or evaluate the function of a material in interaction with marine microorganisms? In short, a proof of concept for your hypothesis, idea or substance. 

RISE's research expertise and more than 130 test and demonstration environments can help organisations in the early stages of their technical or business development. Both through testing and validation, but also by suggesting strategies and pathways for further development, so that products and/or services can be developed, scaled and tested outside the laboratory environment, increasing the pace of innovation. 

Our test and demonstration environments are open to industry, academia and the public sector. In addition, we can provide access to large-scale research infrastructures and the European supercomputing infrastructure in collaboration with academia.

Strategic roadmaps

A clear vision for the future is important for all organisations - from individual companies to entire industries. But to make the vision a reality, a strategic roadmap is needed to help organisations plan through uncertainty and navigate complexity. A roadmap can also serve as a tool to rally a company, an industry or an entire society around a common direction, with clear choices identified.

The result of an implemented roadmap can be seen in the individual organisation in the form of achieved goals, such as sustainability, increased competitiveness and competence, new collaborations and a strengthened brand. The roadmap can also lead to positive effects at a societal level, for example in the form of reduced environmental impact or strengthened international competitiveness.

Sometimes the greatest gain can be in the process of creating the roadmap itself, as stakeholders come together around a common vision.

RISE works with strategic roadmaps in a number of ways: 

• We can support organisations, industries, communities or other constellations of actors in developing strategic roadmaps - from baseline analysis to planning.
• We can analyse an existing roadmap and help stress test and understand the consequences of the directions and choices made, but also help adapt or update the plan based on changing conditions, such as technological challenges, regulatory issues, business models, security issues, environmental issues or social sustainability.
• Finally, we have the capacity and expertise to help implement roadmaps, for example through project and process management, research, development and innovation.

Common to all RISE initiatives linked to strategic roadmaps is that we work independently, on a scientific basis, with a focus on sustainable transition and increased competitiveness.

Policy development

The transition to a sustainable society depends on the rapid development of technology. But technology alone is not enough; to realise its full potential and accelerate the sustainable transition, regulations and policies need to evolve at the same pace. In some cases, policy developments can even take the lead in forcing new technological solutions.

Traditionally, technology development has been separated from policy and regulatory development. But if we are to take a holistic approach to regulatory issues, the silo mentality needs to be broken and replaced by working methods where technology development experts work together with lawyers, economists, behavioural scientists, environmentalists and systems scientists to find the way forward for both technology and regulation.

RISE can act as a neutral coordinating party in the policy development work. Using methods based on design thinking, for example, we can bring together knowledge and skills based on needs, both in law and in the subject area(s) concerned, to develop better policies and regulations where participation and adaptation to user needs are key factors. RISE's grounding in science, access to research expertise, independence and habit of working with industry, the public sector, academia and government means that policy development work is faster and smoother.

Education and training

Both industry and society are undergoing rapid and far-reaching changes. Climate change and technological development are some of the factors placing new demands on our workforce. To meet the complex, often global challenges we face, we need to accelerate our ability to acquire new knowledge and skills. RISE supports industry and society through

• Upskilling - initiatives to upgrade skills
• Reskilling - re-skilling as part of other transformation processes
• Newskilling - when we know we need to learn new things, but not what, we can partner with you to explore it.

Explore our full range of courses and training programmes