EUDA Foresight
Page last updated : 24.09.2025
Introduction
Foresight is a strategic approach that helps organisations explore and prepare for possible futures. It involves using structured methods such as horizon scanning, scenario planning and trend analysis to identify emerging issues, anticipate change and inform better decision-making today. Rather than predicting the future, foresight encourages thinking in terms of multiple possible futures, helping organisations become more resilient, innovative and proactive.
Since 2019, the European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA) has been steadily advancing its foresight capabilities, placing a strong emphasis on building futures literacy — the ability to understand, imagine and shape the future — both within the organisation and among its key stakeholders. This strategic commitment aligns with the EUDA’s expanded mandate to support European monitoring and policymaking on drugs and addictions through a forward-looking lens.
In a rapidly evolving European and global context, foresight empowers the agency to anticipate emerging trends, challenges and opportunities — enabling more agile, informed and resilient responses. By embedding foresight into its core functions, the EUDA strengthens its ability to navigate uncertainty and shape proactive strategies.
The next phase of the EUDA’s foresight journey focuses on deepening futures literacy — the mindset, skills and tools required to engage meaningfully and systematically with the future. This approach supports anticipatory governance, ensuring that today’s decisions are better informed by tomorrow’s possibilities.
Reports
Featured EUDA publications that offer key foresight on Europe’s future trends and challenges.
EUDA Foresight toolkits
A key component of the EUDA foresight portfolio is capacity building, both internally and externally. It refers to developing the skills, tools and institutional frameworks necessary to anticipate future trends, challenges and opportunities.
Horizon scanning
Horizon scanning is a structured foresight method used to detect early signs of potentially significant developments — whether risks, opportunities or transformative trends. It involves systematically gathering and interpreting weak signals, emerging issues and disruptive innovations that could shape the future.
Scenarios
Scenario planning offers a strategic approach to prepare for a wide range of futures: rather than predicting one specific, most probable future, scenarios map out possible alternative developments. The implications of these developments can then be discussed and reflected upon, improving an organisation’s skills in terms of anticipatory decision-making. Scenarios emphasise that the future can be influenced; they invite us to think about ways of achieving desirable outcomes and how to avoid potentially detrimental pathways.
Events
Explore upcoming and past foresight events.
News
Latest updates from the EUDA’s foresight work.
Publications
Key foresight reports and resources.