Anticipating tomorrow: How expert insights enhance parliamentary foresight
Parliament can strengthen its capacity to design forward-looking national strategies and foster foresight-based governance by collaborating with external experts to leverage collective intelligence. This approach allows parliament to overcome its internal resource limitations and anticipate future challenges by integrating external knowledge and expertise to create innovative solutions. For this reason, many parliaments actively engage with specialists to enrich their decision-making processes. This case study highlights how expert groups have been instrumental in shaping parliamentary discourse on future challenges and solutions.
Senate of Chile: Chile Has a Future from its Territories
In 2022, the Committee on Future Challenges, Science, Technology and Innovation of the Senate of Chile released a report entitled Chile tiene Futuro desde sus Territorios (Chile Has a Future from Its Territories) summarizing five years of activities and proposals for addressing future challenges. The report includes outcomes from discussions with more than 600 scientists and experts on potential national and global futures for Chile, covering a wide range of fields such as space policy, genetic engineering, the future of work, artificial intelligence (AI) and green hydrogen.
The Committee collaborated with neuroscientists, university experts and international academic networks to address the ethical and societal impacts of neurotechnology. This effort led to the inclusion of “neurorights” in the Constitution of Chile in 2021 to safeguard individual rights and freedoms. Additionally, a green working group comprising more than 150 experts contributed to carbon reduction and energy transition strategies, leading to the approval of a new mining tax structure in 2023 after four years of Senate deliberations.
The Committee has since published further studies, including Construyendo la Ciberseguridad en Chile (Building Cybersecurity in Chile, 2024) and Chile tiene Futuro desde sus Territorios: Desafíos del Futuro de la Niñez (Chile Has a Future from Its Territories: Challenges for the Future of Childhood, 2024), presenting insights and policy proposals derived from consultations with experts from industry, academia and research institutions.
German Bundestag: Commission of Inquiry on AI
In June 2018, the German Bundestag established the Commission of Inquiry on Artificial Intelligence to examine the societal responsibilities associated with AI and to explore its economic, social and ecological potential. The Commission comprised 19 MPs and 19 external experts and representatives from civil society. Over a period of approximately two years, it discussed the impact of AI on citizens’ lives, the economy and the future labour market.
The Commission convened 25 official meetings, including 15 expert hearings, during which valuable insights were collected from approximately 70 experts and government officials. An online public dialogue was organized to supplement these expert consultations and to gather opinions from citizens on AI. The topics and questions were thoughtfully designed to be clear and accessible, allowing diverse societal groups to actively participate in the discussions based on their unique knowledge and perspectives.
The final report was submitted on 28 October 2020 and its findings were debated in the German Bundestag, providing a foundation for future AI-related policies and actions. This approach illustrates how parliaments can function as platforms for drawing together knowledge from diverse fields, enabling them to anticipate future challenges and respond with agility.
Parliament of Austria: Foresight and technology assessment
Since 2017, the Parliament of Austria has partnered with external institutions specializing in foresight and technology assessment to strengthen and support its legislative decision-making processes. In 2023, the Institute of Technology Assessment (ITA) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences was designated as the partner responsible for delivering this critical expertise.
The ITA consists of around 30 researchers from various disciplines, including natural sciences, engineering, humanities and social sciences. Every six months, it conducts foresight and technology assessment monitoring, providing parliament with scientific information on future social and technical advancements and trends. In 2024, its research focused on forward-looking issues, including solar storms and space weather, biocomputers and negative-emissions technologies.
In a similar vein, institutions that have been supporting other parliaments through technology assessment are increasingly focusing on foresight functions. For instance, the Rathenau Instituut in the Netherlands and the Norwegian Board of Technology are strengthening their efforts to anticipate the long-term societal impacts of technology and science, providing strategic insights to enhance policy decisions based on future scenarios.
Senate of Chile, Committee on Future Challenges, Science, Technology and Innovation
