Circular Economy Foresight Glossary
Circular Economy
In a circular economy, products are designed for durability, reuse and recyclability, and materials for new products come from old products. As much as possible, everything is reused, remanufactured, recycled back into a raw material, used as a source of energy, or as a last resort, disposed of.
Context scenarios
The addressee of a scenario analysis – for instance a firm or a country – can never control the entire range of factors influencing future development. Context scenarios capture in a systematic way the space of possible combinations of factors that will shape the future but are beyond the influence of the addressee. In other words, context scenarios represent possible future environments that the addressee may have to face and for which he/she has to prepare ‚future-proofing‘ strategies.
Future Vision
Future Vision is the description of a desirable prospect with regards to a particular context scenario.
Key technologies and key technology innovation systems
Key technologies is a concept to describe technological developments that could be of use for a wide range of economically important applications. The concept of key technology innovation systems combines the notion of key technologies with that of technological innovation systems in order to capture the institutional and other requirements necessary to realize key technologies and their economic impact.
Pathway
A sequence of steps or events necessary to realize a scenario. These steps can be technological, economic, social or political in nature. In its most simple form, pathways distinguish present state, future state(s) and actions to be taken in between, but they can also take the form of series of actions ordered along a timeline.
Science, technology and innovation (STI) system
These were developed as a concept in the late 1980s, the notion of “system” to capture the nature of research and innovation has exerted a strong influence on research, technology and innovation policy during the past two decades. In most systems approaches to STI, emphasis is put on the importance of interactions between different types of actors, and of the institutions guiding and framing these interactions. Developed initially as a synthesis of previous actor-centred approaches, more recently the notion of functions of (research and) innovation systems has been introduced. Depending on the respective emphasis put on different driving forces, authors speak of innovation systems, research and innovation systems, or science, technology and innovation systems.
Success scenario
This is a desirable future that is challenging, but that must also be possible to achieve.
Triple Helix concept
This concept was elaborated to understand the close relation of governance, innovation and production in a development process. The triple helix model of innovation refers to a set of interactions between academia (the university), business and government, to foster economic and social development, as described in concepts such as the knowledge-based economy and knowledge-based society. Depending on the availability of empirical evidence and data, the model could incorporate public or civil society as the fourth helix (quadruple Helix model), the natural environment of society and ecological issues (quintuple helix model) or even extended algorithmically more generally to a multiple or n-tuple helix model.
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