GO-Science Futures Toolkit

The GO-Science Futures Toolkit

Tools for horizon scanning and futures thinking in government

Waverley worked with the Government Office of Science to produce their Futures Toolkit for policy makers and analysts.

The Futures Toolkit is a resource that policy professionals can use to embed long term strategic thinking in the policy and strategy process. It provides an introduction to futures thinking and examines some of the important design questions that policy makers need to consider when introducing it into the policy process.

The tools are organised according to their primary purpose - gathering intelligence about the future, exploring the dynamics of change, describing what the future might be like and testing policy and strategy - and the procedures are set out in detail. There are also a number of pathways that demonstrate how to combine tools to meet specific needs.

The Toolkit is practical rather than theoretical and each tool and pathway describes the design and facilitation steps required to deliver the technique. It is based on GO-Science’s own experience of running futures work and has been developed in collaboration with other government departments and futures practitioners who use these tools regularly in a wide range of settings.

The Toolkit can be downloaded here, either in full or in part.

There are 10 chapters.