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ABOUT THE PROGRAMme

The Emerging Fellows program is designed to recognize promising early-career futurists and to mentor them to develop further foresight capabilities. It emphasizes authenticity and personal growth, aiming to help you discover and develop your unique voice through writing and community engagement. With a global reach, the program underscores the importance of embracing a foresight mindset and collaborative learning.

Over the two-year process, fellows will be exposed to foresight tools, develop their writing competencies as thought leaders, gain access to mentors, the growing network of EF alumni, and exposure to world renowned foresight professionals through a guest speaker series for EFs only. They will grow their network of foresight professionals and become mentors themselves to successive cohorts. Fellows also gain full access to APF resources and knowledge base. Under the current direction of Jawn Lim, who takes over the version of the program began by Patricia Lustig in 2021, fellows will write about their selected topics, with their work being featured on the APF blog.

Note: The EF program is not a paid fellowship nor does it directly lead to paid foresight work.

Emerging Fellows Cohort 2024 & 2025

current cohorts

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Breaking Free from Sameness: Embracing Degrowth for Innovative Futures

Do you find that everything appears, feels, and sounds increasingly similar nowadays?

Over the past 5 years, I have noticed an increasing homogeneity in experiences, products, services and events. Whether it is our smartphone devices, city skylines, clothing brands or home interiors, the overwhelming sameness is deafening!

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Techno-solutionism is Not The Only Path to Innovation

A few months ago, while scrolling through my LinkedIn feed, I noticed a sudden but obvious rise in the use of the term "AI". Curious about the proliferation of AI as an adjective and an adverb, I decided to dig a bit deeper. I typed "AI" into the search bar and was flooded with profiles that had "AI" in their bios. Something stood out to me—these profiles were mostly of startup founders, and there was a clear pattern in how they described their ventures.

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Imagining Better Futures Using Design Fiction

Over the past year, I’ve come across several news reports about orcas mysteriously attacking boats (see image below). These incidents, which have been occurring with increasing frequency, have left scientists and sailors alike searching for explanations. Some speculate that the behavior is a form of retaliation – an organized uprising against human interference, while others suggest it could be playful or misdirected aggression. Whatever the reason, the pattern of these encounters has sparked widespread curiosity and concern.

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Interspecies Diplomacy:

A New Era of Communication Between Humans and Animals

Imagine a world not too far ahead, where humans and animals engage in meaningful two-way conversations. Not commands and reactions, but dialogue. Cooperation. Negotiation.

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Rethinking ROI:
Investing in Sustainability Beyond Financial Cycles

In recent years, sustainability has become a staple of organizational strategy, but often with a caveat. It is increasingly pegged to ROI and financial returns, a metric that dominates decision-making tables. While this makes sense in a world driven by quarterly reports and shareholder expectations, it deeply frustrates me. Because sustainability, at its core, is not a short-term pursuit, it is a long-term game of survival and stewardship.

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Beyond Institutions:
Imagining Futures That Belong to Us

We live in a world built on institutions. Hospitals heal us. Schools teach us. Governments protect us. Corporations employ us.

These systems have organised our lives so deeply that they feel inevitable. We are born into them, move through them, and measure success by their standards. They give shape to the modern world, but also limit it.

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Building a Future-Proof Nation: The UAE’s Foresight Journey

Future and Innovation – two buzzwords that people in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are more than familiar with. They have become omnipresent, driving conversations in government meetings, corporate boardrooms, educational institutions, and the public space.

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Future Unlocked - From Gut Instinct to Proactive Planning

In my previous blogpost -‘Building a Future-Proof Nation: The UAE’s Foresight Journey’- we have highlighted some existing differences in the way organizations approach foresight and how they demonstrate different levels of practicing it.

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Words of Tomorrow: How Language Shapes Our Vision of the Future

Anyone who has lived and worked internationally can tell their own stories about how speaking the local language opens up deeper access to a country’s culture, providing a richer understanding of its people, values, and way of thinking. Language is not just a tool for communication, it shapes how we perceive and interact with the world around us through the way it frames certain concepts(1).

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Reimagining Housing: Equity, Access, and Shared Futures

The current global housing crisis poses a serious threat to the dream of owning a home for millions of young people worldwide.

From crowded urban areas to remote village corners, the struggle for decent accommodation knows no boundaries. Access to affordable and well-designed dwellings is increasingly more work, and there is no indication that this long, drawn-out battle is coming to an end anytime soon.

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Resilient, Affordable Housing: Tech, Finance, Policy, Design, Community Integration (Part 1)

This blog post will come in two parts. In this post, I will explore technological innovations, financial strategies, and policy interventions for resilient housing, aiming to inspire action to protect future generations.

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Resilient, Affordable Housing: Tech, Finance, Policy, Design, Community Integration (Part 2)

In the previous post, we explored the global housing crisis and the importance of resilient, affordable housing solutions. We delved into technological innovations such as 3D printing and modular construction, creative financing models such as community land trusts and public-private partnerships, and successful policy interventions in cities worldwide.

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Foresight for All: Bringing Future Thinking to Informal Communities

The call to democratize foresight must expand beyond the boardroom to engage those who are most exposed to uncertainty. Informal communities such as urban slums, rural towns, gig economy workers, and undocumented migrants rarely have the opportunity to engage in long-term thinking as they fight for survival each day. These communities need to be more proactive about their futures, as they are often excluded from structured foresight thinking.

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Can We Imagine Utopias Anymore?

We can quickly call to mind popular dystopian stories today because they dominate contemporary media. But can we say the same of utopian stories?

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From Story to System: Designing Futures that Belong to Everyone

The systems that shape our lives – where we live, what we eat, and how we work – are built on the stories we tell about who we are and where we belong. But what if we paid closer attention to crafting stories of the futures we want, and used those stories to design systems that serve us, rather than defaulting to those that don’t?

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What the US Foresight Office Can Learn from the US Department of Arts and Culture

The idea of establishing a Federal Office of Foresight (FOF) in the U.S. government is gaining traction among thought leaders and policymakers who recognize the need for a proactive approach to navigating future challenges. This effort is spearheaded by the Federal Foresight Advocacy Alliance (FFAA), a collaborative of foresight and strategy professionals “dedicated to enhancing the strategic posture of the United States through the establishment of a U.S. Federal Office of Strategic Foresight.”

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What the US Foresight Office Can Learn from the US Department of Arts and Culture - part 2

In our first exploration of the lessons the U.S. Foresight Office (FOF) can learn from the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture (USDAC), we touched on the power of imagination, the importance of a people-centered approach, and the integration of arts and culture in creating a more futures-focused world. These elements are crucial, but as we delve deeper into the practices of the USDAC, we uncover even more profound insights that can help to inform the potential U.S. Federal Office of Foresight.

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Beyond Fairness: Seeding New Possibilities for Our Future

This isn’t a critique, it’s a wonderment—a playful exploration of what might be possible when we think about the future.

The United Nations, Summit of the Future, and subsequent Pact for the Future, (which includes the Declaration on Future Generations) introduced the concept of “intergenerational fairness” (IGF) as a guiding principle—ensuring that our decisions today don’t harm future generations.

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A Call to Action: Building a Public Interest Futures Brigade

In the evolving landscape of societal transformation, the concept of public interest has long ensured that essential services — legal advocacy, healthcare, and education — are accessible to all, particularly marginalized communities.

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From Input to Interbeing

Part 1: Reframing Public Participation as a Living System

We often invite the public into the future through surveys, charrettes, and facilitated sessions. But what if the future needs deeper invitations—ones that nourish interbeing rather than extract opinions?

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From Input to Interbeing - part 2

Part 2: Composting What Is, Cultivating What Could Be

In Part 1, I explored how traditional public engagement often reinforces symbolic listening and extractive logics, and I introduced regenerative participation as a shift in how we relate to systems, time, and one another. Now, in Part 2, I turn toward the practices and provocations—both lived and speculative—that help bring this orientation to life.

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Throughlines: What Emerged When I Wrote Toward the Future

APF Emerging Fellows Program — Final Reflection

Over the past two years as an APF Emerging Fellow, I found myself returning again and again to a simple question:

What futures do we make possible when we expand who gets to imagine them?

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The Art of "Boxed" Design: Harnessing Foresight and Strategic Thinking for Product Growth

I recently had a chat with a senior product designer who reminded me of the benefits of working within constraints in design. In my early days, I struggled with setting design goals and principles before diving into projects. The effort it took to hit a problem on the head and the fast paced nature of the startup world made it easier to neglect. Unfortunately, it often led to unexpected business challenges as companies had to spend more on resources to accommodate my sporadic ideas and last-minute changes.

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The Art of Boxed Design: How to Use Foresight and Strategic Thinking to Set Better Product Goals (Part II)

I work as a product designer with startups. In my experience, I have noticed a common problem. Many teams struggle to set realistic and flexible goals. Startups, in particular, want to move fast, but the future is often unclear. One market shift or customer change can throw all plans off track.

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Designing for an AI Future: Avoiding the Dystopia

Technology makes work simpler and more convenient. That has been the mantra of many startups seeking to streamline work processes through emerging technologies like AI. We envision a future filled with automation, artificial intelligence, and biotechnology because, in the right hands, the possibilities seem limitless.

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Designing for an AI Future: Avoiding The Dystopia II

We may already be slipping into the future our grandparents dreaded.

I have an obsession with medical TV shows. After going through a life-changing experience recently, one of the things that brought me comfort was binge-watching a lot of them. I’ve noticed that, even though they often get the details of CPR wrong, they always take medical mistakes seriously.

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Asking the Right Questions for Better Futures

One reason I enjoy foresight is that it makes me more effective in my day-to-day job. Startups move fast and change all the time. Every week feels different. As a product designer, I often work with teams that want to move quickly and fix problems. In that rush, it is easy to guess or jump to solutions too soon.

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How Feedback Loops Shape Everyday Life

Every rainy season, the same thing happens. The sky turns grey, rain begins to pour, and streets start to flood. In Lagos, people joke that you should only look for an apartment during the rainy season. When it rains, like a thief in the night, water could rush into your room as you sleep.

That joke hides a deeper story.

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Open-Source Intelligence Meets Foresight - Using OSINT for better scanning and futures thinking

As a futurist and foresight practitioner, have you ever come across an intriguing weak signal but could not find out more about it? Have you wished you could go beyond the headlines, loudest voices, and trendy buzzwords to dig deeper and understand what’s really going on?

One way to improve your horizon scanning capabilities is by equipping yourself with Open-Source Intelligence (abbreviated as OSINT) tools.

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Cover Image_Wen Yang Building a DIY Master in Foresight Futures Studies- A Path to Lifelo

Building a DIY Master in Foresight & Futures Studies: A Path to Lifelong Learning

It’s the year 2050. Futures studies and foresight have gone mainstream, with over a million practitioners. But how did we get here? Future historians might wonder, and maybe, just maybe, this very blog will make it into the footnotes.

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AI, Personalized Software, and the Future Where Everyone Programs

"If you’re a reader, you are — secretly — a writer," the best-selling novelist Lee Child once said. To paraphrase: If you're a software user, you might also — secretly — be a program developer. Enabled by recent advances in artificial intelligence, specifically Large Language Models (LLMs), I want to explore a future where everyone programs.

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News Archive 2025–2075: A Chronicle of the Post-Work Transition in the Age of AI

In discussions about AI and the future of work, it’s become common to reassure ourselves that AI is not going to take our jobs. While I agree the most likely future still involves significant human participation, it’s the role of futurists to challenge deeply held beliefs.

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Somalia at 2043: Scenarios and Solutions

On June 26, 2025, Somalia marked 65 years of independence. But this milestone was more than a celebration of sovereignty; it was a critical moment toward a new national direction.

In the same year, the government adopted three landmark frameworks:

the third-generation Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC 3.0) for climate action,
the National Transformational Plan 2025–2029 for inclusive development, and
the inaugural National Vision 2060, a forward-looking agenda aimed at guiding Somalia toward its 100th anniversary as a sovereign state.

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Fables & Folklore for the Future - Part 1: Understanding Time Across Cultures

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When we think of myths and legends, we might think of those from our past history, the ones embedded in our cultures as relics of how our ancestors understood the world. They are preserved as lessons, warnings, and reasonings from worlds that sought to make sense of what lay beyond the tools of their time. This form of knowledge-sharing is as old as written language itself, perhaps older had it been recorded, stretching back beyond even the Epic of Gilgamesh.

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Fables & Folklore for the Future - Part 2: Hopeful Storytelling

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In this next part, I’d like to explore the role of fables and folklore in driving communities forward with a familiar principle in many stories, hope.

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Jawn Lim

PROGRAM DIRECTOR

Associate Professor Jawn Lim is a design futurist who enjoys bringing out the “Eureka” moment in others. At the Singapore Institute of Technology, he is the University-level module coordinator for Design Innovation, which trains about 3,500 students annually. Most recently, Jawn was a Visiting Associate Professor at Stanford University’s Life Design Lab. As an innovation consultant, he delights in empowering companies from finance to hospitality, to think creatively. He frequently serves as an awards judge in branding, design, and technology. Concurrently, he is the Chief Design Officer at the Singapore Productivity Centre, Chair of the Advisory Committee at the Singapore Polytechnic’s Media, Art, and Design School, and a board member of Teach The Future. Previously, Jawn was an architectural designer with Frank Gehry. He holds an Advanced Certificate in Management, Innovation, and Technology from MIT and a Doctor of Design from Harvard.

Emeritus PROGRAM DIRECTOR

Patricia Lustig

Patricia is a foresight, strategy and change consultant, and award-winning author. She is an internationally recognised practitioner in foresight and strategy development, future thinking, scenario planning and innovation. In her career she has worked for several blue-chip organisations before moving into consultancy. She helps organisations develop insight into emerging trends, develop a successful strategy based on this insight and then implement the changes needed to carry the strategy out. She has worked in Europe, EMEA, Asia and the USA and is multilingual.

Patricia developed the programme with the Emerging Fellows in 2021 when she was asked to lead the programme. It develops Fellows' ; foresight capability and helps them to communicate the importance of using foresight for better decision making. She now supports the programme and mentors Emerging Fellows.