Futures Gazing, 2023

Futures Gazing brings Deep Science Ventures’ (DSV) scoping process into conversation with futures prototyping. Developed in 2023 for scientists in its Venture Science Doctorate program, the tools offer six processes for explorative and rigorous visioning, supporting participants in examining possible futures from different perspectives.

Scoping begins with an ambitious real-world outcome and works backward to identify the critical challenges, possible approaches and opportunities for new ventures to make a difference. It gives scientists a way to connect their expertise to a wider societal purpose and to consider what would need to change for that outcome to become possible.

Futures prototyping brings the implications of these outcomes into view and opens their underlying assumptions to discussion. The tools invite participants to question who might benefit or be affected, revise their proposed approaches, and explore a distinctive position for a new company and its investment rationale. The aim is to connect venture formation to the conditions needed to nurture the envisioned outcome. What can participants question or revise when they learn to work backward from a desired societal outcome?