During the spring of 2019, SLU Urban Futures and SLU Future Food are launching the joint project Futures lab. For 12 months, six researchers will first take part of a ‘crash course’ in future studies, and then create and realise their own project with a clear future perspective.
The general purpose of the Futures lab is to strengthen the participants’ ability to work with a future perspective in their research, and to create new interdisciplinary meetings and research questions.
–The Futures lab is an experiment in interdisciplinary future thinking. Inspiration comes from The Pufendorf Institute for Advanced Studies and LU Futura at Lund University, and from my own experience of teaching and researching futures studies. I believe that the combination of an initial ‘crash course’ and an open, exploratory project can attract many and inspire new, exciting research questions, says Josefin Wangel, Vice Programme Director of SLU Urban Futures.
The Futures lab research will connect to one or more of the thematic areas of SLU Urban Futures and SLU Future Food: urban sustainability and a sustainable food system. Right now, the project is looking for researchers at SLU who want to try new methods and ways of working together with colleagues from other disciplines.
–We know that many of the researchers at SLU are already working with a future perspective, but mostly with future issues we already know are important. As future platforms, our mission is to work even more in the long-term. What are the future research questions of tomorrow? asks Annsofie Wahlström, Programme Director of SLU Future Food.
The project is a part of SLU’s future platforms which are characterised by inter- and multidisciplinary working methods and focus on the future in the line between academia and practice. The work spans across faculties and will take place in collaboration with relevant, societal stakeholders in order to tackle complex scientific issues.