LAHORE: AGAHI, a not-for-profit organisation and the country partner of the Millennium-Project, a Global Futures Studies and Research participatory think-tank, Friday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the University of Lahore focusing on establishing Pakistan’s first-ever Foresight Lab. At the signing ceremony, participants were briefed about the lab; envisioning a knowledge exchange initiative that would beacon an effective and efficient way for attaining mutually compatible goals of technological innovation, enhancing national competitiveness, performing as an engine for inclusive prosperity by involving a wide range of exchange mechanisms linking academic fraternity from all disciplines within the ambit of futures research. According to a statement, the purpose of the collaboration with University of Lahore is to engage academic fraternity along with other stakeholders to make well informed choices and decisions about policies, programmes to anticipate future trends and foster an ecology of futures research perspectives in Pakistan, thereby; enabling the policymakers to opt for an appropriate policy choices. Speaking on the occasion, University of Lahore Chairman Awais Raoof said that the initiative would bring together experts from different disciplinary and academic backgrounds to roadmap their expert opinion and adapt existing methods and models to combine techniques to envision a broader range of insights into futures research and development contributing towards publishing of Pakistan State of the Future Index (PK-SOFI). In his address, the co-Founder of the Foresight Lab, CEO and chairman Interactive Group of Companies, Dr Shahid Mahmud, stressed the need for cooperation to meet the challenges of a fast progressing world. “It’s time for a new way of thinking that’s driven by data; Foresight Lab aims to accomplish this.” Puruesh Chaudhary, the founder and president of AGAHI said, “The extended partnership with the academia is to improve the quality decision-making whilst developing advanced knowledge of futures research empowering the knowledge workers in the country to improve the well-being of the people of Pakistan. The AGAHI with its local partners Interactive Group of Companies and Eikon7 along with other leading academic institutions are creating a Foresight model that will have the ability to track expected state of the future over time at national, provincial and district levels – that will enable decision-makers to opt for the most informed policy choice. “The inception of Foresight Lab is not based on prediction – rather it will serve as a prescriptive knowledge-based diagnostic mechanism to test assumptions; which is in itself an ongoing process of thinking through the unchartered territories forming new neural pathways to chalk out alternate possibilities for future trends. The Foresight Lab aspires to help the decision makers in improving the state of the people by providing relevant tools and instruments for information creation, knowledge generation, strategic narrative and policy design,” the statement added. Published in Daily Times, August 19th 2017.