Scenario development and foresight exercises​

Often our clients and partners want to understand how the current and anticipated socio-economic, political and technological drivers will impact innovation in a particular domain in the future. This will determine important decisions, but also their role in the wider social, legal and political context.

Trilateral has more than 15 years of experience in the construction of scenarios. Our project, SWAMI on the Safeguards in a World of Ambient Intelligence constructed four “dark scenarios” about the downsides that come when intelligence is embedded everywhere. More recently, Trilateral has developed a new methodology called policy scenarios, for the SHERPA project, aimed at drawing various policy issues to the attention of policymakers. Currently, Trilateral is developing a set of “what if” scenarios for the PACE project, which concerns populism in Europe.

Our approach brings together stakeholders across the wider innovation ecosystem.
We see the process of scenario construction as an opportunity to engage stakeholders in an iterative process, the legitimacy of which is a function of stakeholder engagement.
Our techniques help stakeholders drill deep into their tacit domain knowledge to unveil hidden assumptions and coordinate insights from their explicit expertise to tease out issues that might otherwise be missed.

Trilateral Research is a recognised thought leader in scenario construction, pushing the boundaries of both theory and practice.
Our scenario innovations feature in prestigious peer-reviewed publications.
We have developed different types of scenarios depending on the context.
We can recommend the appropriate type of scenario based on stakeholders’ needs.
We are experts in coordinating the scenario construction process.