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shiftN attends IRAHSS 2010 in Singapore
March 2010 - Philippe Vandenbroeck has been invited to IRAHSS 2010, an international symposium on risk assessment and horizon scanning, organised by the Singapore National Security Coordination Secretariat, the Defence Science and Technology Agency and the Centre of Excellence for National Security. The by-invitation-only event brings together around 300 participants, mainly from governments, think tanks and private enterprises with a strong interest in horizon scanning. This year, the theme for the symposium is "Strategic Anticipation: Developing Effective Strategies for the Future".
shiftN participates in a bid for a Brussels 2040 vision process
March 2010 – shiftN has been invited to become a member of a consortium to put in a bid for a prestigious international competition. The goal is to develop a long-term vision and strategy for the greater Brussels region. The other members of the consortium are the Research Group Urban Design and Architecture (OSA) at the KULeuven, Dutch landscape architects H+N+S, urban design office BRUT (Brussels), and transport and infrastructure specialists VPW (Brussels). This is an exciting opportunity that will hopefully allow us to enrich our futures and systems skills with an emphatically urban, spatial dimension.
Dexia Account Management Business Game has been launched
March 2010 - On Thursday March 11, Dexia Bank officially launched its Business Game Account Management, developed by shiftN and Pars Pro Toto. The target audience is a pool of 3000 account managers in the Investments branch of the bank. The game has been custom-designed to help these managers to reflect on their daily practice - against the background of the company strategy - and exchange experiences with peers. Development took almost a year and involved many Dexia people from the Sales and Employee Development Departments as well as from the national network of branch offices. After an intensive period of testing the game is ready to go live. Teams in all branch offices will be able to play it. The learning game will also be integrated in the curriculum of specialised account management training sessions. For us it was a genuine pleasure to collaborate with a very open and enthusiastic client. The result is one of our best game developments to date.
shiftN has become a member of ICSID and Flanders InShape
March 2010 – shiftN has been granted associate membership of the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design, ICSID, and full membership of Flanders Inshape. Although we are no designers per se, we see the value of being more closely involved with what happens in the design community. With Pars Pro Toto we have been collaborating for more than 10 years on the custom development of learning games. Furthermore, ever since the publication of Bruce Mau’s “Life Style”, design has been a powerful antenna to pick up weak signals relevant to our practice. And now that designers are quickly moving in a space where the stakes of the profession have been raised from designing stylish consumer products to prototype systemic solutions for the wicked problems of our time, it is even more vital to keep the pulse.
A new learning game for ArcelorMittal
February 2010 - Together with trusted partner Pars Pro Toto shiftN has been invited by ArcelorMittal, the largest steel company in the world, to develop a new learning game to help their global worker population (280.000 people) re-internalise the company’s key Health & Safety rules. In this project we are co-developing a learning concept together with ArcelorMittal University who are bringing in ideas of their own. A prototype version of the game is expected to be ready for demonstration at the company’s worldwide H&S day in the spring.
Beyond Fossil – Re-fabricating Urbanity
February 2010 – shiftN’s Philippe Vandenbroeck has been invited to join the editorial team for a new book project that is emerging from the post-graduate research program Resources conducted at the School of Architecture at the Royal Institute of Arts in Stockholm. In a three-year project – Cities and Energy – the program has investigated how necessary changes in energy consumption and production will influence and inform our cities and our ways of life. A flyer introducing the book project can be found here. In his capacity as scenario planner and systems thinker, Philippe was thrilled to be able to join forces with the multidisciplinary research team of the current studio focusing on Pune, India.
A new strategy for KBC Bank’s “Recruitment and Development” team
January 2010 – shiftN has been invited to facilitate a strategic workshop with the leadership team of KBC’s Recruitment and Development department. KBC Group is a prominent player, providing financial services to retail, SME, midcap and private banking clients in its home markets of Belgium and five Central European countries. After a difficult year as a result of the financial crisis, the Group is refocusing its activities. This year more than 500 people will be recruited to give shape to the new strategy. The R&D team wishes to prepare for the upcoming challenges and to reassess its strategic positioning in the Group.
Designing Eco-Design
January 2010 – In partnership with design office pars pro toto shiftN has won a bid for a contract that aims at developing a practical tool to help designers to “eco-design” more effectively. The project is financed by the Flemish Public Waste Agency and the Energy, Nature and Energy Department of the Flemish Government. The tool will be complementary to the existing Ecolizer which has been successfully adopted by the target group. The focus of the instrument will go beyond the purely technical aspects of eco-design, to include the more intangible and strategic dimensions (for example, the way a product is embedded in a product-service combination). This is an interesting conceptual challenge and shiftN is pleased to team up with long-standing partner pars pro toto in yet another collaborative venture. The project is scheduled to run for a year, to early 2011.
Another accolade for the Umicore Way Game
December 2009 – Umicore, a leading materials technology group, has been selected as one of three winners – among 37 competing submissions – of the Belgian Business Award for the Environment. The award recognised the company's efforts to integrate the principle of sustainable development in its business model. The Umicore Way Game – developed by shiftN and pars pro toto - was singled out as a particularly innovative approach in developing a shared sustainability policy whilst recognising the needs of different business units, spread out over the world, of the non-ferro group. Earlier this year, the Umicore Way Game was already singled out as one of the finalists of the company's internal Innovation Award.
A strategy for a new "Ecosystems Services" research unit
December 2009 – shiftN has been invited to support a new "Ecosystem Services" research unit at the Flemish Institute for Nature and Forestry Research in developing a multi-year strategy. For this assignment ShiftN builds on its experience in supporting teams and units in knowledge-intensive, research-oriented settings in defining a distinctive strategy and research model. Recent assignments included the "Agriculture and Society" unit at the Flemish Institute for Agriculture and Fisheries Research and the Interprovincial Research Centre for Organic Farming. In addition there is a significant track record of working with units in pharmaceutical discovery research.
Beyond Development: an urban design studio on Pune, India
December 2009 – Philippe Vandenbroeck will co-lead a week-long postgraduate urban design studio at the School of Architecture, Royal University College of Arts, Stockholm. The studio is part of the Resources.09 program which focuses on the influence of changes in energy production and consumption on the built environment and our way of life. Previous studios focused on Shangai and Los Angeles. This year's program is anchored on the Indian city of Pune. The program is led by Prof. Henrietta Palmer and Michael Dudley. For this week's futures-oriented seminar, Philippe will team up with Karl Hallding, Head of the Stockholm Environmental Institute's China Cluster.
shiftN becomes a member of the Hub Brussels
November 2009 – To its membership at The Hub King's Cross, London, shiftN has recently added a membership of The Hub Brussels. The Hub is an international network of incubation centres, providing hard and soft infrastructure (not only desk space, cappucino and copy machines but also access to expertise, networks and financing options) for social entrepreneurs. Philippe has been a member of the Board of the Hub Brussels for a while. With a new, large space opening shortly in the charming buildings previously belonging to the Chocolaterie Antoine at the Koninklijke Prinsstraat in Brussels, the Hub is set to expand rapidly. We'd like to take advantage of the buzz and access to new networks that this will no doubt generate. The Hub provides us now with an operational base in the two key poles of our activities, Brussels and London.
shiftN initiates a collaborative 'think-and-do' lab to explore the future of Urban Agriculture
November 2009 – shiftN is preparing the ground for a new, ambitious collaborative futures project. In the past, shifN has initiated other multistakeholder projects (in collaboration with our partners at Bio-Sense and Giract): Nutrition & Health 2020 (2005), a Nutrition & Health Open Innovation Lab (in collaboration with Philips Design, 2006-7) and 2025 Fields for Food or Fuel? (2008). All of these projects have been carried out by a multistakeholder consortium, assembled from the ground up, and financed by a mix of private companies and foundations (King Baudouin Foundation, United Nations Foundation). Now we are turning our attention to the future of Urban Agriculture.
By now it is clear that the 21st century will be an urban future. By 2050 roughly 70% of our species will live in cities. We also know that in the coming decades humanity has to mobilise an unprecedented level of political will and ingenuity to surmount three key challenges: by 2030 demand for energy and for food will increase by 50%, and we will need access to 30% more drinkable water to support a population of 9 billion. John Beddington, Chief Scientist of the UK Government (and our client in the Foresight UK projects we have been doing over the last couple of years) refers to this future scenario as 'the Perfect Storm'. Against this background it is important to understand what contribution we might expect of urban agriculture. With this new project we want to understand what urban agriculture might look like in 30 years, both in the developing world (where it is an ancient practice) and in the developed world (where the boundary between the urban and the rural is increasingly being blurred).
A presentation that explains the basic logic underlying this project is available here:
Urban Agriculture Futures
This is a discussion document that is currently being used in a broad consultation round and will lead to a more formal project proposal early in 2010. The project is scheduled to start in the latter half of 2010
Plan C – Transition to Sustainable Materials Management
September 2009 – In 2006, a Transition Network on Sustainable Materials Management (Plan C) was brought to life under the tutelage of the Flemish Minister of Environment with OVAM, the Flemish Public Waste Agency, acting as key initiator. Plan C aims to put the conditions in place for breakthrough innovations in the area of materials management to emerge. The effort is inspired by a nascent systemic innovation framework – paradoxically referred to as 'transition management'. This moves away from push-button, top-down intervention strategies to initiate change in extended, complex socio-technical systems. Transition management is a nuanced, systemic (multi-level, multi-actor) philosophy that is focused on stimulating social learning and building intellectual capital, with environmental and economic value creation as an inevitable by-products.
After an initial phase of vision development, Plan C has now moved into a second phase. A pool of 'experiments' is forming as nodes in a systemic innovation network. ShiftN has been asked by i-Propeller to join them in consolidating the methodological framework to 'manage' this pool of experiments, ensuring coherence with the vision yet allowing sufficient latitude for genuinely novel things to emerge.
Publications and presentations
June 2009 – The June 6 issue of The Lancet (www.thelancet.com) published a short article "Stigma and Discrimination in Mental Illness: Time to Change" authored by Claire Henderson and Graham Thornicroft from the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London. The article discusses the intervention logic underpinning the largest ever programme in England to reduce stigma and discrimination against people with mental health disorders – called Time to Change – by means of a systems map developed by shiftN in the framework of the UK Govt Foresight Mental Capital and Wellbeing project.
Prof. Dr. Andre Faaij from Copernicus Institute (University of Utrecht) gave a talk at Agri Vision 2009 "Shifting Horizons" (June 17-19, Noordwijk aan Zee; agrivision.com) "Towards more Sustainable Agriculture - Conflict or Concord between Fields for Feed, Food & Fuels". The talk drew heavily on the multistakeholder scenario project "2050 Fields for Food or Fuel?", jointly organised by shiftN and Giract. Andre Faaij was deeply involved in this effort and supported the project team as scientific co-ordinator.
A Global Energy and Environment Strategic Foresight Lab
April 27 & 28 2009 – An Energy and Environment Strategic Foresight Lab was held in Washington DC under the auspices of the Energy and Environmental Security Directorate (EESD) of the US Goverment's Department of Energy's Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence. The Lab was co-designed and co-facilitated by shiftN and brought together a diverse group of 100 thinkers, scientists, analysts, planners and decision-makers to identify and assess critical vulnerabilities emerging from the interconnection of energy and environmental drivers.
The Strategic Foresight Lab was just one milestone in a much broader effort to remodel strategic intelligence away from the compartmentalised, classified approach espoused by national security establishments towards a permanent, self-organising, international, openly available participatory platform involving both virtual and face-to-face forums.
shiftN has also committed to develop a pilot project to demonstrate the potential of internationally collaborative research on the nexus between energy and environmental forces to swiftly and elegantly lead to actionable foresight. At this point several trajectories are being explored. shiftN's commitment in the GlobalEESE will continue well into 2010
White Paper on Agricultural Research
March 25th 2009 – The White Paper on Agricultural Research ("Witboek Landbouwonderzoek") has been formally handed over to Minister-President of the Flemish Government Kris Peeters. The Paper presents the key substantive areas that Flemish researchers will focus on in the coming years. It also discusses the implications for the way agricultural research is regionally organised and funded. shiftN designed and facilitated a process of consultation in which more than 100 people from the policy and research communities and from the agricultural sector were involved. Jo Goossens from Giract who joined us in this effort also took care of a sophisticated audio-visual presentation to communicate the findings to a wider audience. The White Paper (in Flemish/Dutch) can be downloaded here.
Learning Game for Dexia
March 2009 – In collaboration with our long standing partners pars pro toto shiftN has started to work on the development of a customised learning game for key account managers at Dexia Belgium. Dexia is a leading European bank operating in public finance and retail banking. In Belgium, the bank has a strong retail division. The purpose of the interactive simulation is to help their specialist investment advisors to move into a new client focused distribution model. The learning game will be, as is customary, completely made-to-measure based on a thorough analysis of Dexia's specific business requirements and organisational culture.
The Future of the Middle East
March 2009 – shiftN has been invited to facilitate a 2-day interactive conference in Ottawa on the future of the Greater Middle East, co-organised by the Canadian Security and Intelligence Services, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, National Defence Canada, and the Privy Council Office.
Money Laundering
March 2009 – shiftN has been working with a group of international experts, lead by the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency, to develop a generic concept map on money laundering.
Mapping Mental Health
March 2009 – The King Baudouin Foundation (Brussels) has invited shiftN to assist in an exploratory mapping of key friction points and problems in the Belgian mental health sector. The process will be based on wide stakeholder consultation in both the French and Flemish-speaking parts of the country.
Summary brochure of the "2025 Fields for Food or Fuel?" project has been published
January 2009 – A brochure has been published by the United Nations Foundation that summarizes of the key insights emerging from the "2025 Fields for Food or Fuel" project. This multistakeholder effort was initiated, designed and implemented by shiftN in collaboration with Geneva-based Giract (www.giract.com). The aim of the project was to better understand how in the future biomass will be produced and consumed on this planet. This question is particularly important given the increasing competition for biomass for different uses: food, animal feed, fuel and fibre. The project brought together a mixed group of stakeholders, including industry representatives, NGOs, academic experts and policy makers. Funding was provided by three agrifood companies (Jungbunzlauer, Nutreco and Cosun) and by the UN Foundation. The latter provided us with an additional grant to produce a summary brochure for a wider audience. 5000 copies will be distributed by the UN Foundation itself. The brochure explains the background to the project and outlines the four scenarios resulting from the work. Prof. André Faaij from Copernicus Institute, University of Utrecht (Netherlands), who acted as scientific advisor to the project, provided the brochure's introduction. It is available on by request or it can be downloaded here.
An international Foresight (DIUS) project on the Future of Food and Farming: How to feed 9 billion people in 2050?
January 2009 – shiftN has been invited by Foresight, Department of Universities, Innovation and Skills, UK Government, to work on their new international project on the Future of Food and Farming. The lead question is "How to feed 9 billion people on this planet in 2050". The project is an a very early phase and our contribution is aimed at providing a systemic background to an inital scoping of the subject area. We will predominantly work with the project's multidisciplinary group of lead experts. This project fits very well with our extensive portfolio of food and agriculture-oriented assignments. There is also a interesting overlap with the work we are currently doing on another Foresight project focusing on UK Land Use Futures. We look forward to contributing to this vital issue.
