Iranian R&D conference :: conference of Industries and Mines R&D Centers

In the name of God
8Th Conference of Industries and Mines R&D Centers
Innovation fore sighting in R&D

Date :29 June 2009
Venue : IRIB Int'l. Conference Center

Since forecasting with great degree of certainty is rather an impossible action, the fore sighting can equip the humankind for the future horizons. This is a systematic process, participative & depicter of future senses which build the medium to long term vision in order to provide the conditions in which, up to date decisions are made and the collective moves are taken. It tries to identify the possible futures, seeks the appropriate one and illustrates the procedure to get to it.
Fore sighting can support the direction definition, specifying the priorities, identifying the competencies, informing about the negotiations, raising the beneficiary's participation, erecting the social asset, building the identity and creating satisfaction.
Enterprises, who are dealing with knowledge & thought, have drawn their future efforts as follows:

Medium & short term perspective
For present time: Studying traditional market
Future five years: Studying strategic market, Prospective economic analyses, Competition analysis, Technology monitoring
Future 10 years: Strategic marketing & Trend research, Innovation and technology analysis, Strategic technology monitoring

Long term perspective
Future 15 years: Scenarios of future societies like political think tanks, Global trends like World Bank, World watch institute, Product impact assessment, Technology assessment like Offices for technology assessment, Technology foresight like Delphi-studies, Technology monitoring.
In1995 technology fore sighting in the R&D sector introduced as a process involving systematic attempts, to look into the longer-term future of science, technology, economy and society with the aim of identifying the areas of strategic research looking for the emerging generic technologies which might yield the greatest economic and social benefits.
The view was further developed in 1996 as a systematic tool for assessing those set of technological & scientific developments which can have great impacts on industrial competition, creating wealth & life quality for humankind. Today is looked at it with a view of fore sighting in the area of innovation in order to specify the direction of expected inventions and innovations searches for the man before getting to them.
Fore sighting can utilize forecasting & aids the planning, but it should not be confused with each of these two functions. Forecasting is made of studying and picturing out the past & present trends, & creating an imagination of the probable future. It relies only on the experts and ultimately covers a spam of less than 10 years, while fore sighting is deemed for a horizon of 10-20 years, & implemented with the assumption of several possible futures to be selected amongst them based on interests & activities of the present beneficiaries, like government, industry, world of science, social and natural scientists, non governmental organizations, business unions, media, banks, schools &the public.
Planning on the other hand, is based on theories & doctrines on future developments, involves policy makers and experts, and encompasses shorter time horizons less than 1-5 years.
This conference intends to draw a picture for the future of innovation in Iran & at the globe and investigate procedures and policies to materialize the objectives.