About FEN
An open network for a better Europe
FEN was founded by the European nodes of The Millennium Project and the European Regional Foresight College. It is open to anyone interested in exploring futures in a European context, or committed to using foresight to help build a better Europe, wherever they are based.
What is foresight?
Foresight is a participatory vision building, strategy designing and action supporting process.
It is a future-oriented approach to policy and strategy that brings together future-oriented thinking, priority setting and long-term planning. The participation of many different stakeholders is what makes it work.
We use foresight to improve decision-making by including the people who have a stake in it. Complex social, technological, scientific and environmental issues need a participatory approach, built on networks and shared knowledge, so we can meet future challenges proactively rather than react to them.
Governance
Shared leadership: triad model, six-year terms
Every FEN leader serves six years in three roles: two years as Future President, two years as President, and two more as Past President. At any time, three people share the lead.
Future President
Thays Prado
President 2027–2028
President
Lena Tünkers
2025–2026
Past President
Nick Balcom Raleigh
President 2023–2024
Low hierarchy
The leadership team’s main job is helping members find each other and creating chances to meet.
Low bureaucracy
No fees and minimal infrastructure, so energy goes into connection rather than administration.
Open by default
New members are always welcome, regardless of their level of experience: from seasoned practitioners to students.
Member-led
Beyond meetings, everything the network does grows out of members’ own interests and initiatives.
Leadership team
Who leads FEN now
President · 2025–2026
Lena Tünkers
Zürich, Switzerland
Lena expands people’s capacity to imagine alternatives, using the future to shift perspectives and narratives in the present. A process designer and facilitator working with Futures Literacy and Experience Design, she has worked with EIT Urban Mobility, EIT Food, GIZ, Porsche, Kaospilot and the Danish Refugee Council, after earlier roles in innovation and business design at HelloFresh, Spotify and the UN.
Future President
Thays Prado
Lisbon, Portugal
Founder of Feminist Futures and co-founder of Women Who Future(s). Thays leads feminist foresight journeys with NGOs, feminist funds and UN agencies, and works with women and girls worldwide to turn speculative stories into advocacy. An NGFP fellow, SOIF alumna, screenwriter and documentary filmmaker; President from 2027.
Past President
Nick Balcom Raleigh
Turku, Finland
During his presidency in 2023–2024, Nick shaped FEN as a venue where Europe’s futures community can meet, know each other and be known to each other. He researches the roles imagined futures play in organisations innovating to address climate change, and co-chairs the UNESCO Chair on Learning for Transformation and Planetary Futures at the Finland Futures Research Centre.
Communication Officer · since 2021
Mara Di Berardo
Bologna, Italy
Communications Director of The Millennium Project and Co-Chair of its Italy node, collaborating with the project since 2007. Mara is a consultant and trainer in futures research, communication and project management, and co-founded the Italian Futurists Association.
Past presidents
Who came before us
| Term | President | Country | Background |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023–2024 | Nick Balcom Raleigh | Finland | Finland Futures Research Centre, University of Turku |
| 2021–2022 | Epaminondas Christofilopoulos, PhD | Greece | UNESCO Chair on Futures Research (FORTH); Chief Scientific Advisor to the Special Secretariat for Foresight; co-chair of the Greek Millennium Project node |
| 2019–2020 | Anna Sacio-Szymańska, PhD | Poland | 4CF The Futures Literacy Company, Warsaw; foresight capacity building |
| 2017–2018 | Cornelia Daheim | Germany | Future Impacts Consulting, Cologne; founded the Millennium Project German node in 2003 |
| 2015–2016 | Blaž Golob · founding president | Slovenia | GFS Institute, Ljubljana; elected at UNESCO, Paris, in 2014 |
Founding Vice Presidents: Cornelia Daheim and Ibon Zugasti (PROSPEKTIKER, San Sebastián; Deputy Director of The Millennium Project).
History
FEN’s trajectory over time
- 2012–2014
The ERFC–EUMPI network (the European Regional Foresight College and the European Millennium Project Nodes Initiative) runs Foresight 2.0, field reviews in San Sebastián, Genval and Ljubljana searching for a new generation of foresight.
- Oct 2014
At the Anticipatory Governance Workshop at UNESCO in Paris, members establish the Foresight Europe Network with a new mission and vision: Foresight for a better Europe. Blaž Golob becomes founding president.
- 2015–2016
Meetings in Turku, Zagreb, San Sebastián, Starachowice and Ljubljana. feneu.org launches, and the network opens to everyone active in European foresight.
- 2017–2018
Under Cornelia Daheim, members set four strategic directions: the future of work, creating the future with younger generations, foresight capacity building and the future of cities. They meet in Turku, Florence, Berlin and Tampere.
- 2019–2020
Anna Sacio-Szymańska leads; meetings in Warsaw and Pisa celebrate a prototype online course in foresight and Futures Literacy. The pandemic takes FEN online in November 2020.
- 2021–2022
Epaminondas Christofilopoulos leads; FEN meets at the WFSF World Conference in Berlin and launches a GDPR-compliant member registration process.
- 2023–2024
Nick Balcom Raleigh leads; FEN Demo Hours start, with members demonstrating their own foresight methods. The network grows to around 345 members.
- 2025–2026
Lena Tünkers leads; the annual meeting takes place at Futures4Europe in Vienna, around 40 new members join, and the monthly FEN Exchange launches in November 2025.
- 2027–2028
Thays Prado takes over as President.