Science and Technology Foresight: Four French Case Studies

The very rapid progress of the sciences and technologies, their distinctive characteristics and the highly varied uses to which they can be put demand from us more than ever an effort of vigilance, foresight and evaluation. In recent years in France that effort – covered by the generic term ‘Technology Foresight’ – has given rise to a number of exercises relating to the French system of research and innovation (FutuRIS), to Key Technologies 2010, to the future of the strategy of the National Agricultural Research Institute (INRA 2020), and to the contribution that could be made to the challenges of sustainable development and the improvement of everyday life by various services and technologies (Agora 2020). There was previously no summary in English of these four projects. This publication fills that gap and aims to provide an account, for the benefit of the international community, of some major projects carried out in France on the basis of different – and particularly innovative and promising – approaches.