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Our latest updates, thoughts, and events — as they roll out.
Demos Helsinki is currently involved in 14 Horizon Europe projects. From exploring the societal impacts of new technologies to tackling climate challenges, these projects reflect a growing demand for research that sparks systemic change. Discover how we are working across disciplines to shape fairer, more sustainable futures.
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These three research projects are: 1) Reducing polarisation via material participation (MaDem); 2) Coastal waters under pressure – safeguarding a healthy Gulf of Finland in a changing geopolitical and environmental landscape (CoWup); and 3) Safe Water for All (WaterFall).
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We are pleased to announce that the UNDP’s Istanbul Innovation Days (IID), taking place in March 2025, will focus on shaping the next generation of public institutions for a secure and prosperous world.
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In the future, the new technologies will
emerge that combine physical and digital
realms. This doesn’t mean that the Internet
will be everywhere. It means that the physical and the virtual world will collide, come together, and exchange qualities.
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The stories of places like Songdo in South Korea or Masdar city in Abu Dhabi fit the classic Smart City mold: technologically highly advanced, newly built cities, planned in a top-down manner by leading architects and technology companies. This, however, is not the reality in which most of us urban-dwellers live.
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Urban development is not the same as it used to be. In many cities in the Western world, urbanisation continues, while compromising on a building stock in dire need of renovation. Radical changes in structures of economy and work, our need to drastically cut our greenhouse gas
emissions, the emergence of the sharing economy, and many other strong drivers are changing the way we live, faster than ever before.
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Europe’s democratic resilience requires introspection, clear-sightedness and reimagination
September 16, 2025
The European Democracy Shield (EUDS) is being prepared to bolster the continent’s democratic resilience. If it isn’t to become one of innumerable democracy initiatives, EU institutions need to be clear-sighted about the causes and stakes of our present moment.
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Imaginaries on Sustainability Transformation – Report outlines three positive futures
May 19, 2025
Imagining futures where society has successfully undergone a sustainability transformation helps us envision a world in which today’s major negative trends have been brought under control. But what kind of positive futures have been proposed in recent years? At the request of the Finnish Expert Panel for Sustainable Development, Demos Helsinki conducted a literature review and drafted three preliminary visions of such futures.
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The anticipatory policy cycle: not just preparing for the future, but influencing it
May 14, 2025
Governments that invest in foresight-driven policymaking are better positioned to shape the conditions that they operate in. This is how to build policies that both anticipate and influence the future.
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