Conducting pre-foresight research: organizational aspect

Abstract

The growing uncertainty of economic development increases the interest in future research and its role in determining the priority areas of scientific and technological, socio-economic, regional development. Related to this is the rapid spread of the foresight practice as a process of actively learning about the future and creating a medium- and long-term vision to consolidate the efforts of all stakeholders in making relevant decisions. The scope of foresight, which is already becoming the subject of international cooperation, is also expanding. Methodological recommendations have been adopted for the EU countries to balance the countries’ foresight methods when conducting strategic forecast research. Ukraine lags far behind European practices in organising the foresight process, limiting itself to individual initiatives for limited periods. The country has not yet developed the organisational methods required for full-fledged foresight research. Above all, the analysis of organisational and methodological support of the foresight process, the basic aspects of which are formed at the pre-foresight stage of the study. Therefore, the subject of the study was to highlight the organisational aspect of pre-foresight research. The purpose of this publication is a detailed study and analysis of the organisation of pre-foresight research in terms of the formation of informational, communicative, and methodological components of the pre-foresight stage, as well as recommendations for measures to improve the effectiveness of national foresight as a tool for long-term development in the country. Based on bibliographic analysis using systematic, comparative-historical, structural, interdisciplinary approaches, the foreign experience of organising pre-foresight research was generalised, the expediency of improving the information and regulatory framework for foresight research was substantiated, the scope of application of foresight-specific research and criteria were determined by stakeholders of the process, as well as methodological approaches to the formation of a combination of research methods were discovered.

Keywords

• foresight
• public policy
• pre-foresight research
• forecasting
• strategic planning