"Leaflet - Foresight Mazovia"

Project Foresight Mazovia, i.e. "Monitoring and forecasting (Foresight) the priority, innovative technologies for sustainable development of the Mazovia region" is realized in a cooperation of Industrial Research Institute for Automation and Measurements PIAP and the Information Processing Centre OPI, within the Polish Sector Operational Program - Increase of the enterprises competitiveness, action 1.4 "Strenghtening the cooperation between R&D sphere and the economy".
It has started on 1st July 2006 and has been planned for 24 months.
The main objective of the project is to identify the primary technologies of a great importance for the strategy of the Mazovia region, and their development within the next 20 years. As a result of this research the possible scenarios of the region development will be described.
Foresight Mazovia project meets the objectives of the National Development Plan for years 2004-2006, which is aimed at building of the competitive, knowledge and entrepreneurship-based economy, able to a long-term, harmonious development, and ensuring the increase of employment, as well as improvement of the cohesion between Poland and European Union, both on the regional and national level.

The interdisciplinary analysis carried out within the project and the technological forecast for sustainable development resulting from it, are focused on the following areas:
• Living standards of the society
• Energy
• Ecology
• Technologies for environmental protection
• Natural resources and new materials
• Economical growth
• Infrastructure
Actions undertaken in the project include the following:

- Diagnosis of the current State-of-the-Art in technological development of the Mazovia region, along with the innovative potential of the enterprises and R&D sector, based on the SWOT analysis and research on the source information and studies in all of the 7 themes.

- Research on the key directions for sustainable development of the region, based on the Delphi method and cross-impact analysis, with participation of over 300 independent experts from diffrent areas of specialisation.

- Public consultations, orientated towards strong involvement of the society in the process of identification of the priority technologies, which include thematic seminars, survey, and research through the Internet portal, and what allows for the verification of the experts' opinions.

- Preparation of the technologies development scenarios, made in close cooperation with the experts, and including evaluation, positioning, and forecasts of the technologies development.

- Dissemination of the project results, which includes preparation of: report, textbook, thematic brochures, press publications, Interenet portal and electronic newsletter, and is practically performed during the whole duration of the project.

An additional result of the project is creation of a complementary database of experts from different fields.

Project objectives are accordant to the long-term vision of the Mazovia region development, described in the Strategy of Development of the Mazowieckie Voivoidship, as the increase of competitiveness of Warsaw Metropolis and the whole region in the European and global system.