Here is the Teams recording link:Recap: SCPHRP Weekly Meeting 2026 (Hybrid) 28 April | Meeting | Microsoft Teams
Though often lauded as a critical approach to the present complex Grand Societal Challenges, systems thinking is often difficult to engage with and poorly operationalised in large-scale programmes. Though systemic approaches are on everyone’s lips, very few translate into genuine methods of co-creation, especially at in the context of the interaction of technology and society. Often, the fundamental question is: “Where to even start?” In this talk we will review some of the key premises of how a combination of critical futures studies, knowledge and innovation management approaches and applied tools and processes can help shape a more collaborative framework for socio-technical systems analysis and design. Looking at tools such as Opportunity Area Analysis Tool (Kitagawa and Vidmar, 2022); Utopian Devices (Vidmar et al., forthcoming) and Open Prototyping (Hemment et al. 2024), we will explore how landscape mapping, future visioning and strategic innovation can inform a new paradigm of socio-technical systems engineering.
Dr Matjaz Vidmar is Lecturer in Engineering Management at the University of Edinburgh and Deputy Director of the Institute for the Study of Science, Technology and Innovation. He is researching innovation processes, R&D (eco)systems and futures strategies and design, working in particular with the satellite and space data industry, biotechnology and artificial intelligence. He lectures and mentors students on topics in technology and innovation management, entrepreneurship, social dimensions of innovation, systems engineering and futures design. He is also involved in many international initiatives to develop the future of these fields, including several start-up companies and an extensive public engagement programme on the interplay of STEM, arts, and futures literacy. More at www.blogs.ed.ac.uk/vidmar
