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Current projects

Foresight has these ongoing projects:

  • The Future of Computer Trading in Financial Markets will explore how computer generated trading in financial markets might evolve in the next ten years or more, and how this will affect:
    • Financial stability;
    • Integrity of financial markets including price information and liquidity;
    • Competition;
    • Market efficiency for allocating capital;
    • Transaction costs on access to finance; and
    • Future role and location of capital markets.
  • The Migration and Global Environmental Change project will explore the global patterns and impacts of migration over the next 50 years arising from environmental change as well as the challenges that could result from changing migration patterns and how these might be managed. The project’s findings will be published in the autumn of 2011.

Our recent published projects include:

  • Global Food and Farming Futures will look out to 2050 and take a global view of the food system; considering issues of demand, production and supply as well as broader environmental issues.
  • Land Use Futures launched in February 2010 and helps government and other policy makers to assess whether the UK’s existing land use patterns and practices are fit for the future. It examines what actions might be needed to ensure that land continues to be able to support the lives dependent on it in the long term.
  • Tackling Obesities: Future Choices launched its findings on 17 October 2007. The project aimed to produce a long term vision of how we can deliver a sustainable response to obesity in the UK over the next 40 years. All outputs of the project are available on this site.
  • The Mental Capital and Wellbeingproject is producing a challenging and long-term vision for maximising mental capital and wellbeing in the UK in the twenty-first century both for the benefit of society, and for the individual. The project has been running since October 2006, and reported its findings in autumn 2008.
  • Our project on Sustainable Energy Management and the Built Environmentargued that we need to reduce the carbon emissions from our existing buildings. It explored how the UK built environment could evolve to help manage the transition over the next five decades to secure, sustainable, low carbon energy systems that meet the needs of society, the requirements of the economy, and the expectation of individuals.