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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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Imagining how life would look like in a sustainable world where ‘one planet living’ has been attained might be difficult. That’s why we created four potential future scenarios to describe what sustainable lifestyles in Europe might look like in 2050 and to identify the pathways towards reaching it. Our scenarios are not predictions or forecasts but instead seek to
explore the most extreme yet sustainable possibilities, in order to help e.g. policy makers and designers think of the currently “unthinkable”.
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In recent years, we have witnessed the emergence of more sustainable products, services, and experimental bottom-up initiatives. They have signaled new hope that more sustainable ways of living are achievable for all, while celebrating diversity, in post-industrial societies.
Despite these developments, existing promising sustainable living practices are not enough as they remain dwarfed by the unsustainable impacts of the average European’s current lifestyles.
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It is a common misconception that material scarcity – be it climate change or the peak production of natural resources from oil to phosphor – would lead into a similar linear development in our lives that the increased wealth and expansion of the middle classes did, except with a downward trajectory. This paper presents an alternative view; a view that takes a look at the actual material footprints of people from several European countries and the lives behind the footprints.
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Finland, what is our promise for future generations?
January 20, 2026
Foresight Friday 2025 brought together policymakers and global experts to discuss Finland’s long-term responsibilities to future generations and intergenerational fairness. The question remains open, and it belongs to all of us: what is our promise for future generations?
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Initial comments on the European Commission’s Affordable Housing Plan
December 18, 2025
Housing must be made affordable while protecting the ecological systems on which we all depend. The EU could lead this transformation but it requires new ways of thinking about policy, governance, and action.
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Doomed to grow or ready to transform?
December 3, 2025
Economic growth used to be a cause that had effects, and the desired and expected effects were a matter of political and public debate until the 1990s recession. The meanings and expectations towards growth changed over time, and the idea of economic growth evolved within the debates and the very varied perspectives to growth. Our report “Doomed to Grow” calls for acknowledging growth’s historical recent origins and past pluralism in how economic growth has been discussed.
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