Foresight in Ecosystems

FORECO (Foresight in Ecosystems) is a multidisciplinary co-innovation project on strategic foresight practices in ecosystems and AI-assisted tools that support them.

The project investigates how strategic foresight, carried out jointly by different actors in an ecosystem, should be practiced so that it produces real value for the entire ecosystem and its individual companies. While foresight currently typically focuses on producing insight information that outlines future scenarios, FORECO goes two steps further and also examines ecosystem-level strategic decision-making and market shaping based on foresight information. Artificial intelligence and data sharing infrastructures are harnessed efficiently and securely for both the joint collection of foresight information and the joint analysis and processing of information.

FORECO is based on three fundamental observations: 1. companies are increasingly using strategic foresight to benefit their own innovation and business operations, 2. companies often conduct business in an ecosystemic manner with several companies in the same supply chain, but 3. joint foresight is not practiced with these companies. FORECO aims for a significant national change in this last observation and thereby strengthens the ability of ecosystems to both meet future demand and create it in international markets.

The joint project involves large companies in their own industries (ABB, Kempower, Meyer Turku), which bring their own ecosystems, a coordinator company for several large ecosystems (Tamlink), and two companies focused on foresight artificial intelligence and data expertise (Fibres Online and HeadAI). The domestic research partners in the project are VTT, LUT-university, and the University of Turku, with VTT also acting as the coordinator of the joint project.