Science and Technology Needs. A Demand-led Scientific and Technological Foresight Study: the Quebec-based Project, "STS Perspectives"

In the conclusion to an article outlining the originality of the Quebec government’s Council of Science and Technology (Futuribles no.292), Hélène Tremblay and Alain Bergeron wrote in December 2003 of the launch in spring 2003 of an ambitious foresight exercise in science and technology, linked to the demands emanating from wider society. This was the “STS Perspectives” project. Nearly six years later, that project has become an essential pillar in the thinking on the future of science and technology in Quebec, connecting closely, on the one hand, with the aspirations of the citizens and, on the other, with the researchers and public decision-makers. In this article, Alain Bergeron, who until 2008 co-ordinated the project, outlines this demand-led scientific and technological foresight exercise in detail. After recalling how “STS Perspectives” originated, he gives an account of the two major phases of the project. The first task was to determine the main socio-economic challenges that science and technology can contribute to meeting, first questioning the Quebec population on its future concerns, then tightening the analysis by consulting researchers. In the second phase, working groups made up both of researchers and “research users” devised research development strategies for each of the challenges identified. Lastly, Alain Bergeron demonstrates the advantages of this approach and how it has been – or is being – translated into public policies in Quebec.