A comparative analysis between the CIMULACT citizen-based research topics and expert-based foresight studies reveals that citizens’ involvement introduces more holistic and socially grounded perspectives that are lacking from many expert-based studies.

While experts tend to put emphasis on technological developments when giving input to research policies, citizens point towards human- and community-centered values. This is the major conclusion of an in-depth comparative study between expert reports and 46 citizen-based research topics developed during the highly participatory CIMULACT project.

The 46 citizen-based proposals for research topics were compared by quantitative and qualitative analyses with a total of 16 foresight reports developed by experts with the aim of influencing the FP8/FP9 creation process.

Read the full report here.