Next Generation Foresight Practitioners

What Next Generation Foresight Practitioners does

Next Generation Foresight Practitioners (NGFP) is a UK-registered non-profit initiative of the School of International Futures (SOIF), founded in 2018 to support emerging foresight practitioners aged 18–35 globally. Its core offering is an annual one-year fellowship program that selects 25 fellows per cohort, providing each with USD 1,000 in kick-starter funding, mentorship, training, and access to a global Sensing Network of over 900 practitioners, with a top fellow eligible for a USD 10,000 grand prize. The initiative is free to apply to and free to participate in, with no commercial pricing model.

NGFP's product surface combines fellowship delivery with a portfolio of public-facing foresight projects. These include the African Digital Futures Portal (launched October 2021,), a digital storytelling platform hosting 11 visions for digital futures in Africa; the Peaceful Futures project, co-developed with VZOR Lab and Global Education Futures, which produced a white paper and roadmap involving participants from over 30 countries; the Futures Methods from Around the World (FMAW) project, which catalogs global foresight methodologies; and additional projects such as WHO Futures, the BBC Futures Time Capsule collaboration, the Futures Manifesto, and Africa Futures Leadership. Regional fellowships (Balkans, MENA) and thematic hubs (Africa, Climate, Digital Futures, Intergenerational Fairness) extend the program geographically and vertically.

The underlying technology stack is a conventional web stack for non-profit program delivery rather than proprietary foresight software: the NGFP application portal runs on Laravel, Gatsby, Next.js, React, and Sanity, the Sensing Network community runs on Hivebrite, the parent SOIFSpace community runs on Humhub, and newsletters are distributed via Mailchimp and Hubspot. Core foresight methodologies are participatory: scenario development, scenario workshops, speculative storytelling, and curated cross-cultural methods, with no evidence of proprietary software or AI/ML infrastructure. The business model is grant-funded philanthropy rather than commercial revenue — funding partners include Omidyar Network, Small Foundation, Humanity United, and the International Development Research Centre — and the entity has no separate legal registration, operating under SOIF (School of International Futures Ltd., company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales,).

Name

Next Generation Foresight Practitioners

Legal name

Next Generation Foresight Practitioners

Website

https://nextgenforesight.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2018

Operating status

Operating

Short description

Next Generation Foresight Practitioners (NGFP) is a UK-based non-profit initiative of the School of International Futures that runs an annual 25-person global fellowship, a Sensing Network of over 900 emerging foresight practitioners, and thematic foresight projects such as African Digital Futures, Peaceful Futures, and FMAW.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Foresight Fellowship and Network Programs

NAICS

Professional and Management Development Training (61143)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Online/Hybrid Lifelong Learning Platforms & Open Enrollment Programs (EDAAAEAL)

Keywords

• Foresight fellowship programs
• Strategic futures training
• Scenario planning workshops
• Community network building
• Participatory futures methods

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Grant Funding and Philanthropic Support: NGFP is an initiative of the School of International Futures, a not-for-profit organization. Revenue comes from philanthropic foundations and grant funding. Supporters include Omidyar Network, Small Foundation, and Humanity United. The organization operates fellowship programs funded by these partnerships.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

NGFP runs a one-year global fellowship program that supports emerging foresight practitioners aged 18-35 with USD 1,000 kick-starter funding, project partnership with expert foresight practitioners, introductory foresight training, and access to the NGFP Sensing Network of 900+ practitioners. Selected fellows can compete for a USD 10,000 grand prize at the end of the fellowship year, and the network also drives regional programs (Balkans, MENA, Africa), thematic hubs, and foresight projects such as Peaceful Futures, African Digital Futures, and Futures Methods from Around the World.

Product overview

The Next Generation Foresight Practitioners (NGFP) is an initiative of the School of International Futures (SOIF) that operates as a fellowship and network program rather than a unified software product. The core offering is the NGFP Fellowship Program, a one-year journey providing emerging foresight practitioners with kick-starter funding, project partners, capability building, and access to the NGFP Sensing Network of 900+ global practitioners. Supporting this are thematic projects including the African Digital Futures Portal (a digital storytelling platform hosting visions of digital futures in Africa), Peaceful Futures (exploring peace-based civilization), and Futures Methods from Around the World (cataloging global foresight methodologies). Additional programs include Africa Futures Leadership, WHO Futures, Time Capsule collaboration with BBC Futures, NGFP Young Voices Awards, and various regional hubs. The NGFP Application Site provides the fellowship application platform.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• African Digital Futures Portal: A portal hosting eleven explorations of how 22 NGFP members envision the future of digital in Africa, focusing on data governance and digital societies.
• Peaceful Futures
• WHO Futures
• Time Capsule
• Futures Manifesto
• Africa Futures Leadership
• Futures Methods from Around the World

Products and services

• NGFP Fellowship Program A one-year journey of project support, collaboration and learning in community for emerging foresight practitioners aged 18-35, providing USD 1,000 kick-starter funding, connection to project partners, foresight capability building, and access to the global NGFP Sensing Network, with a chance to win a USD 10,000 grand prize at the end of the fellowship year.
• NGFP Sensing Network A global platform connecting over 900 next-generation practitioners to share ideas, develop connections, engage in dialogue on key global issues, and enhance their foresight projects' impact, hosted on the Hivebrite community platform.
• NGFP Young Voices Awards Awards program recognizing outstanding contributions from young foresight practitioners in the NGFP community, judged by an appointed panel of judges.
• NGFP Application Site Online platform for fellowship applications and candidate management, built using Laravel, Gatsby, Next.js, React, and Sanity technology stacks, with registration and login functionality.
• African Digital Futures Portal A digital portal hosting eleven explorations of visions for African Digital Futures developed by 22 NGFP members from Kenya, Nigeria, and Pan-African contexts, presented in audio, visual and text formats for public access.
• Africa Futures Leadership A six-month leadership programme supporting 13 changemakers in Africa to use foresight tools for creating impact in their communities.
• Peaceful Futures A global project exploring principles and methods for establishing a peace-based civilization through intergenerational workshops, with white papers and a manifesto developed with peacebuilding experts.
• Futures Methods from Around the World (FMAW) A project identifying pre-existing ways of thinking, being and doing from around the world that can support broader collective futures thinking, creating an accessible online public asset of global wisdom on alternative foresight methods.
• WHO Futures A project identifying youth visions and priorities for life beyond COVID-19, exploring what young people think life will be like in the next 10-15 years.
• Time Capsule A collaboration with BBC Futures where global next-generation fellows developed a time capsule of objects capturing life in 2020.

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 900 practitioners in global network
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• VZOR LabcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-initiator of the Peaceful Futures project with NGFP, Global Education Futures, and SOIF. VZOR Lab produced the Peaceful Futures White Paper and Roadmap in collaboration with other partners.
• Global Education FuturescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-initiator of the Peaceful Futures project. Partnered with VZOR Lab and NGFP to organize workshops and produce the Peaceful Futures White Paper exploring trends and methods for establishing a peace-based civilization.
• School of International Futures (SOIF)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerParent organization of NGFP. SOIF is a non-for-profit collective re-imagining governance for societal transformation and runs the NGFP Programme, Fellowship, Impact Fund, and Sensing Network.
• Ecocivilization MovementminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSupporting partner for the Peaceful Futures White Paper and Roadmap production, supporting the exploration of peace-based civilization through culture, education and future thinking.
• Future Worlds CenterminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSupporting partner in the production of Peaceful Futures White Paper, contributing to the exploration of peace-based world-building through foresight processes.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Emerging players

• Forecasting Research Institute: A research organization conducting studies on forecasting accuracy and geopolitical forecasting tournaments. It is comparable as an emerging player building a practitioner community around systematic prediction methods relevant to foresight work.
• Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER): A Cambridge University research center studying existential and global catastrophic risks. While more academically focused, it overlaps with NGFP in applying futures methodologies to long-term, complex global challenges and convening early-career researchers in foresight-adjacent work.

Direct peers

• The Millennium Project: A global participatory futures research initiative operating since 1996, with nodes in many countries producing scenario work and State of the Future reports. It overlaps directly with NGFP in producing open foresight outputs and convening practitioners across geographies.
• Shaping Tomorrow: A foresight platform offering scenario planning tools, trend analysis, and futures methodology services to clients worldwide. It is comparable as a foresight-methodology specialist that, like NGFP, supports practitioners and organizations in applying structured futures thinking.
• Association of Professional Futurists (APF): An international professional association for practicing futurists that maintains a member directory, hosts events, and supports the professional development of foresight practitioners. APF directly mirrors NGFP's mission to support and connect practitioners of foresight.
• World Futures Studies Federation (WFSF): A global NGO that brings together researchers, educators, and practitioners of futures studies. WFSF is comparable to NGFP as a community-of-practice for emerging and established futurists, with overlapping conference, publication, and network-building activities.
• Institute for the Future (IFTF): One of the world's leading foresight research organizations based in California, IFTF conducts long-term forecasting and futures research with a similar focus on methods and practitioner development. It is the most established direct competitor in the global foresight space and offers overlapping training, publications, and convening functions.

Others

• Skoll Foundation: A foundation supporting social entrepreneurs through awards and a global network of fellows. While focused on social enterprise rather than foresight, it is comparable as a funder of an emerging-leader fellowship model with similar philanthropic-grant-based structure and global network architecture.
• Dubai Future Foundation: A government-backed foresight organization that runs foresight research, scenario planning, and a major global forum (Future Forum). It is comparable as a foresight institution but with much broader scope, larger budget, and government mandate rather than grassroots practitioner focus.

Broad incumbents

• ITONICS: A commercial foresight and innovation management software platform used by enterprises for trend scouting, scenario planning, and strategic foresight. It represents a scaled, incumbent commercial counterpart to NGFP's open foresight methodology work, though with a paid B2B model.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/nextgenforesight

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Next Generation Foresight Practitioners