Against the background of the positive experience gained at the IZT with participation-orientated scenario processes, the scenario methodology was systematically developed further for the "High-Tech Strategy for Germany". The Federal Ministry of Education and Research gave the go-ahead for corresponding funding: the IZT was able to demonstrate in the "High-Tech Strategy for Germany" how scientific and technological fields of innovation benefit from working with illustrative visions of the future.

Workshops were held on

  • "Ambient Assisted Living" (AAL), i.e. intelligent assistance systems for everyday life,
  • "Safety in public spaces",
  • "Water for people in the 21st century",
  • "Nutrition for quality of life and health".

While scenarios previously created by the IZT for the BMBF could be used as a starting point for most of these topics, a completely new scenario had to be developed for the innovation field of "security technologies". The fact that in this case a second "scenario-evaluating" workshop was subsequently held at the request of the participants speaks for the high level of satisfaction.

At least half of the participants always came from the ministerial sector (departments and project organisers) - as original players in the High-Tech Strategy - and were supplemented by associated external scientists and experts (advisory boards, accompanying researchers, stakeholders). The aim was to give them the opportunity to stimulate each other and exchange ideas across disciplinary and institutional boundaries in a creative atmosphere. In particular, the development of (further) positive visions and desirable futures for the individual fields of innovation was methodically supported.

Overall, the accompanying method evaluation showed that almost all participants not only rated the work in the scenario workshops very positively, but also drew remarkably clear benefits for the penetration of the topic and their own work.

Detailed documentation was compiled for each topic carried out. The scenarios used and the description of the scenario methodology developed are available as IZT Workshop Report 104 has been published. The other project results, in particular the method evaluation, can be found in IZT Workshop Report 111.