Foresight Capacity Building

The present report provides an overview of the development, content, evaluation, and outcomes of the ‘Public Health Foresight Studies’ Training course, also referred to as the ‘Foresight Capacity Building’ training course or the ‘course’. The Foresight Capacity Building course aims at leveling capacity in Public Health Foresight Studies from PHIRI’s participating Member States (MS).
Building foresight capacity through this training course is the main output of Task 9.2 of Work Package 9 (WP9) of the PHIRI project. This course was shaped taking into account the foresight capacity needs of MS as reported in the survey carried out in the first quarter of 2021 (during Task 9.1). The course prepares professionals of MS to carry out their own foresight study with the support of WP9 team and from each other.
The Foresight Capacity Building course followed a didactive approach consisting of theory on the concepts covered, practical examples, and practical exercises. In addition to the foresight project team of lectures, guest lecturers contributed to specific topics. The course consisted of 5 modules: a general module, followed by three advanced modules deepening on several foresight elements, and a final module revisiting the concepts learned throughout the course and introducing participants to the next task: developing scenarios.
Throughout the course, participants gave their feedback through evaluation forms. Where possible, we used this feedback to better address participant’s expectations and improve the course along the way. Overall, the course was well appreciated by participants. However, we also encountered some challenges. These mostly related to issues of time in an era of high work load: difficulty finding lecturers, the small time window for preparing the course, and a gap between registration and actual participation. Also, fitting enough opportunity for small-group-discussion into each session was a challenge.
More than 70 participants from 21 MS attended (at least one module of) the course. Videos of the course are available on the PHIRI website. Participants that were not able to attend the full course were recommended to watch the videos. To stay in touch, they were encouraged to join the LinkedIn group created during the course to interact with other professionals and experts.
The course (Task 9.2), allowed those not familiar with public health foresight to develop a basic level of foresight capacity and those with preexisting experience to deepen their knowledge. The course participants are ready to plan and conduct their own Public Health Foresight Study in the next phase of our PHIRI work (Task 9.3).
All professionals interested in public health foresight studies are invited to check out the course and join us. It will also be made available on the European Health Information Portal, as part of the ‘European School on Health Information’.