Luiss Future Lab (LFL)

Reference center: Research Center on Technology and Market Behavior X.ITE - Insight Technology Enhanced

The Future Lab aims to be a meeting place for conducting research around projects on possible futures. The working groups for each research project handle the collection of facts and documents, the definition of research questions, interviews, workshops, and the processes that lead to the identification of actionable decisions. Expert heuristics is the main research approach in futures studies, using formats ranging from scenario building to backcasting, and sometimes the Delphi method and weak signal analysis.

Topics are selected in relation to interdisciplinary projects of interest to stakeholders, as well as to students. The experts involved are chosen starting from Luiss faculty members, but the network can naturally extend externally. The method is chosen together with the stakeholders who support a research topic with their people and their financial resources. Research becomes part of the students' learning experience, both intellectually and in terms of networking.

The areas of study and research are diverse: from businesses to cities, from technologies to the arts, from individuals to organizations. LFL project initiatives generate various types of outputs and outcomes, from papers to exhibitions, from conferences to the design of real project drafts, also depending on the resources made available by stakeholders. All futures research launched, collected, or simply reported by the Luiss Future Lab will be gathered in an Annual Report to be presented at an annual conference.